The Childrens Blizzard, David Laskin
The Childrens Blizzard, David Laskin
List: $15.99 | Sale: $11.20
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The Children's Blizzard

Author: David Laskin

Narrator: Paul Woodson

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/10/2016


Synopsis

January 12, 1888, began as an unseasonably warm morning across Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, the weather so mild that children walked to school without coats and gloves. But that afternoon, without warning, the atmosphere suddenly, violently changed. One moment the air was calm; the next the sky exploded in a raging chaos of horizontal snow and hurricane-force winds. Temperatures plunged as an unprecedented cold front ripped through the center of the continent.

By Friday morning, January 13, some five hundred people lay dead on the drifted prairie, many of them children who had perished on their way home from country schools. In a few terrifying hours, the hopes of the pioneers had been blasted by the bitter realities of their harsh environment. Recent immigrants from Germany, Norway, Denmark, and the Ukraine learned that their free homestead was not a paradise but a hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled.

About David Laskin

David Laskin was educated at Harvard College and New College, Oxford. For the past twenty-five years, Laskin has written books and articles on a wide range of subjects, including history, weather, travel, gardens, and the natural world. His book The Children's Blizzard won the Washington State Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award for Nonfiction and was nominated for a Quill Award. Laskin's other titles include Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather; Partisans: Marriage, Politics and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals; A Common Life: Four Generations of American Literary Friendship and Influence; and Artists in their Gardens, coauthored with Valerie Easton. A frequent contributor to the New York Times Travel section, Laskin also writes for the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, and the Seattle Metropolitan. He and his wife live in Seattle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Carmen on May 14, 2019

Even worse than the whiteout was the agony of his eyes when he tried to see through the snow. The fine hard pellets blew into his eyes and made them water. Walter cried and the snow mixed with his tears until it formed a crust between the upper and lower lids. Instinctively he reached up to brush th......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on September 16, 2022

"Arrogance is a pandemic." That passage in the book's introduction grabbed me and wouldn't let go. It was referencing weather forecasters during the blizzard on January 12, 1888 where 250 - 500 people perished in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas. A big shout out to a Goodread's friend, Debbi......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on April 22, 2017

Thanks to Goodreads friend Melki I have an owned copy that I could read at my leisure. I was able to return a less than pleasant to read library copy as soon as I received it. It was such a pleasure to read a basically pristine copy. The only times I normally get to do that is when I manage to get a......more

Goodreads review by Joe on December 13, 2021

"The Children's Blizzard" was a sad tale. Reading it during a cold spell really set the mood. As I read about the pioneers struggling to get their animals into shelter, I thought of our animals and wondered what I would do if the weather really, really got bad. But being as it will around 50 tomorro......more