Bad Land

  • Author Jonathan Raban
  • Narrator Paul Bellantoni
  • Publisher Blackstone Publishing
  • Run Time 12 hours and 11 minutes
  • Format Audio
  • Genre History of the Americas.
This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Seduced by the government’s offer of 320 acres per homesteader, Americans and Europeans rushed to Montana and the Dakotas to fulfill their own American dream in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Jonathan Raban’s stunning evocation of the harrowing, desperate reality behind the homesteader’s dreams strips away the myth—while preserving the romance—that has shrouded our understanding of our own heartland.

Critics Review

  • “As good a book as I have read about rural America in a very long time…Reminds the reader how much America has always been nourished by the optimism of its immigrants.”

    New York Times Book Review
  • “A vivid and utterly idiosyncratic social history of the homesteading movement in eastern Montana that went boom and bust during the first three decades of this century…This seemingly informal yet careful blend of chronicle and personal reportage is social history at its best.”

    Publishers Weekly
  • “Raban shows a travel writer’s eye and a social critic’s sensibilities while probing the land, homesteaders’ journals and letters, and the reminiscences of their descendants. Recommended.”

    Library Journal

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.