Bad Land An American Romance

"When Dad came out here, he had twenty-five dollars, a wagon, and a mule." So began the stories of countless homesteaders who, in the first decades of this century, seized an astounding government offer: three hundred and twenty free acres in the stark, dry Plains of Montana and the Dakotas. Seduced by promises and the prospect of a new life, Americans and Europeans came determined to put down roots and prosper. Now Jonathan Raban re-creates the austere terrain that once housed their hopes; he portrays the people whose dreams foundered there and the survivors who endured amidst the ruins of those who fled.