Product Description
Despite beautiful landscapes and bountiful harvests, farming is hard work and always has been. The Great Depression in rural America, which began in the 1920s and lasted until World War II, made it still harder. At a time when tractors were replacing horses and the family farm was giving way to the large, single-crop enterprise, the struggle to survive and modernize in a period of economic scarcity was especially sharp. In A Good Day's Work, Dwight Hoover, who grew ... More >>
A Good Day's Work: An Iowa Farm in the Great Depression
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This memoir was written by a college professor and it reads just like it. I have read a few memoirs that took place during the Depression and all of them managed to inject a sense of fun and humor in spite of the hard work and difficulties. This one is written with scrupulous detail but is just plain boring.
Lorraine Haven
Rating: 2 / 5
Down to earth telling of an average lad’s growing to manhood on a Midwest farm during the 1930s-40s. Well written and very readable.
Rating: 3 / 5
I enjoyed this book very much. I grew up near where Mr. Hoover did, and in fact am one of the Dutch that he refers to (kindly) near the end of the book. I was a little surprised that Mr. Hoover did not know why sheep only lamb in the spring. In the Iowa climate (warm sultry summers) ewes only come into estrous in late September or early October. Other than that I found most of his memories to be spot on and although reported with an obvious respect and regard for the farming life, detailed without romanticizing the life beyond any semblance of authenticity.
Rating: 4 / 5
If you are looking for a book about what it was like (sometimes in mind-numbing great detail) living on a farm during the depression years, this is the book for you. I was hoping for more of a “housewife” approach of life during the Depression years, and this book is clearly about FARMING.
If you are interested in the minute details of harrowing, plowing, cultivating, and the sizes of such farm implements back then, then you may really enjoy this book. I know my late father would have devoured every page! However, maybe I should have realized that memoirs written from a male’s recollection would not have dwelt overmuch on the housewife’s responsibilites on the farm. The author touched upon her duties here and there throughout his book, with the majority of his memories concentrating on the his family’s daily field and farm work.
Like I said before, if you’re looking for a book written almost strictly about the fieldwork during the Depression, you’d probably love this book.
Rating: 2 / 5
I grew up in a small town in Iowa during the 60s & 70s. Lately I have read several books on growing up in Iowa and found this one to be one of the best. The author explains in great detail of what Iowa farm life was like during the Great Depression. Hard work, isolation and the dependence on the entire family just to get by is just some of what the author covers. A good read for anyone interested in early farm life.
Rating: 5 / 5