The Children's Blizzard (P.S.)
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Product Description
Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants were promised that the prairie offered "land, freedom, and hope." The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and America's heartland would never be the same. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
great for a book group
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Comment:
In January of 1888, a terrible blizzard, which came to be known as the "Schoolchildren's Blizzard" blew in across the Nebraska & Dakota Territory prairie. It was so-called because the deaths from the blizzard were largely of children who left school because of the bad weather coming. Sadly, they left "at the moment when the wind shifted and the sky exploded (2)."
Using a wide variety of sources, Laskin has put together this account of that fateful day, but the book is much more than just a retelling of the event. He also details other immigrants' experiences such as tough crossings, and the often difficult life once they reached the Dakota territory. Laskin also discusses the state of weather forecasting at the time, and asks some pretty pointed questions about the issue of fault during the course of a natural disaster. I think a lot of people would also agree that the book is a definite statement on the power of nature and the horror it can inflict when people are unprepared (not that people can always be prepared for natural disasters).
I'd definitely recommend this to people who like history in focused, short bursts (like this book or along the lines of something like Isaac's Storm) rather than out of texts. The only part where it even felt a bit boggy was the discussion on the history of weather forecasting, but that didn't really detract from my reading. If you're also interested in life on the plains, this is a good one to read as well. Very well written -- I couldn't stop reading it once I started.
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Summary:
Makes You Shiver
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Comment:
Laskin's story chronicles a monster blizzard that devastated the Great Plains in January 1888 and left some 500 people -- mostly children trying to get home from school -- frozen dead on the prairie. After a slow start the book became fascinating to me. I could do without all the meteorological stuff or the too in-depth background, but the stories of the families, their struggles and their survival was riveting.
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Summary:
interesting review of segment of US Midwest history
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Comment:
David Laskin, in "The Children's Blizzard," presents an interesting perspective on the settlement by whites across the prairie states of the US midwest.
Using the great blizzard of 1888 as a framework, Laskin tells the story of immigration of Europeans from Scandinavia and German-speaking Europe into the Midwest. He also discusses settlers who arrived from the eastern US. From these stories, I learned much about the conditions in Europe and the US that led to this migration.
Laskin also reviews the state of the art in weather forecasting in the 1880s. For some readers, the deep coverage of weather may be a bit too much, but it really is an interesting topic that is worthwhile to understand.
The stories of individual death and hardships during the blizzard provided a human face to the narrative and helped deepen the understanding of the effects of the immigration and land distribution policies of the time. There is much to learn about the complex ways in which the US was occupied by the well-meaning settlers from Europe.
Laskin also includes a good review of his sources and an index. At times, the writing is a little clunky, but the story is fascinating. On the whole, I enjoyed the book.
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Summary:
Amazing historical non-fiction
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Comment:
What an amazing telling of a terrible storm. Others have given the highlights of the story so well that I won't re-cap...
I will say that I enjoyed very much the information about the immigrants; where they came from, why they came, what their lives were like, how they ended up where they did, what their values were, etc. The stories about the storm were amazing and kept me hooked on every word. I found the historical information about weather predicting a little dull. However, I gave the book to my dad and those sections were his favorites.
In any case, a very interesting book.
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Summary:
The Children's Blizzard
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Comment:
I thought the book was well done, however there really was a lot of technical information that I thought detracted from the story itself. I know I skimmed over it, and went on to the content of the story.
Over all I was pleased with the information and enjoyed learning about that entire part of the country. How much we take for granted with our warm homes, and safe 4x4 vehicles. Our pioneer ancestors were certainly made of stronger stuff than we are.
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