Scan barcode
machka_llesan's review against another edition
5.0
Since I was old enough to be politically conscious, I have been baffled by the fact that so many Americans vote against their own economic interest. As time has gone on, this problem has become even more acute, with the wealthy getting exponentially wealthier while the rest of American wages increase slowly or not at all. In fact, the net worth of all US households and non-profit organizations in 2017 was $94.7 trillion. Divided equally among households, this would be $760,000 per family – a level of wealth most of us can only imagine and very few of us will ever achieve. And yet, an increasing number of my fellow rural Americans vote for Republicans – the party that increases this inequality. In her book, Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild investigates this question.
Hochschild (a sociologist from Berkeley, California) travels to Louisiana where she spends a significant amount of time among individuals whose lives have been upended by massive amounts of pollution and environmental degradation. They, their relatives, and their friends have been displaced by environmental catastrophes and many of them have developed cancer as a result of the pollution. What is unique about these individuals though is that they are Republican Party and Tea Party supporters – the party who is outspoken about wanting to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. There is obviously a Great Paradox here, as Hochschild explains: Why would individuals whose lives have been ruined by industrial pollution support political candidates who want to deregulate and expand those same industries?
Hochschild uses her interviews with these individuals to weave a story for us: The Deep Story. The story that explains why these Louisianans vote the way they do. The Deep Story explains not only this paradox, but also how these individuals justify voting for Donald Trump. During the 2016 election, many left-leaning Americans were horrified to find out that many of their fellow citizens supported this man who had been so vocally discriminatory. I, specifically, was disheartened to see that the base of that support had come from the place that raised me.
The Deep Story is a story of feeling. We each have a Deep Story, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be factually true, it only needs to feel true. Without giving too much away, the Deep Story of these Louisianans (and presumably many other rural Americans) is a story of waiting in line and seeing other people cut in line. Specifically people who are much different from the typical Republican. In their Deep Story, White, Christian, heterosexual, middle-class Americans “wait in line” and “play by the rules” in hopes that someday they will make it big and achieve the American Dream. And suddenly, progressive policies let others cut in line – Blacks, Latino immigrants, Muslim refugees, gays & lesbians, welfare recipients. To them, all these groups who have faced historic (and contemporary) discrimination are line-cutters who are aided by a President (Obama) who also seems unfamiliar (and who they wonder might be a line-cutter himself). It doesn’t matter that their own communities are being degraded by pollution: That is the price they pay for jobs and money, and it is an “honor” to endure without complaining (unlike the line-cutters who act like victims).
We all have a Deep Story, and though Hochschild briefly examines the liberal Deep Story, this book is about the conservative Deep Story. Strangers in Their Own Land challenges liberals to scale the empathy wall and understand the world from a conflicting perspective and challenges conservatives to think critically about the factuality of the Deep Story they have created for themselves.
While the book is very in-depth and was a captivating read that I would recommend, I understand that we don’t all have time for books. Alternatively, Hochschild also did a short interview with NPR that gives an overview of the Deep Story. You can listen to it here: https://www.npr.org/2017/01/24/510567860/strangers-in-their-own-land-the-deep-story-of-trump-supporters
Hochschild (a sociologist from Berkeley, California) travels to Louisiana where she spends a significant amount of time among individuals whose lives have been upended by massive amounts of pollution and environmental degradation. They, their relatives, and their friends have been displaced by environmental catastrophes and many of them have developed cancer as a result of the pollution. What is unique about these individuals though is that they are Republican Party and Tea Party supporters – the party who is outspoken about wanting to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. There is obviously a Great Paradox here, as Hochschild explains: Why would individuals whose lives have been ruined by industrial pollution support political candidates who want to deregulate and expand those same industries?
Hochschild uses her interviews with these individuals to weave a story for us: The Deep Story. The story that explains why these Louisianans vote the way they do. The Deep Story explains not only this paradox, but also how these individuals justify voting for Donald Trump. During the 2016 election, many left-leaning Americans were horrified to find out that many of their fellow citizens supported this man who had been so vocally discriminatory. I, specifically, was disheartened to see that the base of that support had come from the place that raised me.
The Deep Story is a story of feeling. We each have a Deep Story, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be factually true, it only needs to feel true. Without giving too much away, the Deep Story of these Louisianans (and presumably many other rural Americans) is a story of waiting in line and seeing other people cut in line. Specifically people who are much different from the typical Republican. In their Deep Story, White, Christian, heterosexual, middle-class Americans “wait in line” and “play by the rules” in hopes that someday they will make it big and achieve the American Dream. And suddenly, progressive policies let others cut in line – Blacks, Latino immigrants, Muslim refugees, gays & lesbians, welfare recipients. To them, all these groups who have faced historic (and contemporary) discrimination are line-cutters who are aided by a President (Obama) who also seems unfamiliar (and who they wonder might be a line-cutter himself). It doesn’t matter that their own communities are being degraded by pollution: That is the price they pay for jobs and money, and it is an “honor” to endure without complaining (unlike the line-cutters who act like victims).
We all have a Deep Story, and though Hochschild briefly examines the liberal Deep Story, this book is about the conservative Deep Story. Strangers in Their Own Land challenges liberals to scale the empathy wall and understand the world from a conflicting perspective and challenges conservatives to think critically about the factuality of the Deep Story they have created for themselves.
While the book is very in-depth and was a captivating read that I would recommend, I understand that we don’t all have time for books. Alternatively, Hochschild also did a short interview with NPR that gives an overview of the Deep Story. You can listen to it here: https://www.npr.org/2017/01/24/510567860/strangers-in-their-own-land-the-deep-story-of-trump-supporters
ketzirah's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic way to understand the other 1/3 of the country.
nerdalert219's review against another edition
4.0
If you can only read 1 part of this book, let it be Part 3!
Part 1 and 2 had some good info and Part 4 was like a wrap up.
I'm left leaning but always open to other opinions because I know I don't know everything. Def worth a read.
Part 1 and 2 had some good info and Part 4 was like a wrap up.
I'm left leaning but always open to other opinions because I know I don't know everything. Def worth a read.
flibbityflob's review against another edition
Read for my thesis - excellent book, excellent introduction to ethnography as it can be in its most brilliant format. Whilst I felt a great deal of frustration, of anger, of irritation with the subjects of this book, there was also a resounding sense of affection for them. They've been lied to their whole lives, the promise of the American Dream tangible for them, and they can never have it. They'll never be able to have it. The moment that resounded most of all was the concept of these people as victims, but victims both unable to accept their victimhood, and having had the language of their victimhood stolen from them.
raconteurs's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book because I hoped it would make me understand the right wing movement and people who voted for Trump better. But it actually made me really angry about how careless those people hande our enviremont. Specially because their decicsions does not only effect their lifes but the whole planet.
sksrenninger's review against another edition
4.0
Eye-opening, confusing, enraging. Definitely worth reading to start to understand the Southern Tea Party.
nderiley's review against another edition
4.0
Well researched, written and paced - I really enjoyed the level at which the empathy wall topic was addressed - the author poses questions and then attempts to clearly answer them. That said, while I may now intellectually understand the viewpoint of those represented, I do not empathize with it. This is perhaps my own shortcoming.
nderiley's review against another edition
3.0
My biggest frustration with this book is not the fault of the book. I picked it up, hoping it would give me some empathy for those on the other side of the political spectrum. The book gave me understanding, but I still found no empathy for their positions.
saraanneb3's review against another edition
5.0
What a well-written, and heartbreaking, book.
I appreciated that she came to the South with curiosity, not judgment. But, I think the book may have been intended to inspire empathy for the right, and it did not for me. I grew up around these people, I lived my whole life in the south, and now with the facts and stories in front of me, it made me even angrier that people would vote and think this way. It also, as a new resident of Louisiana, made me absolutely horrified of every body of water in the state!
Thought provoking and helpful though, and really thorough appendices in the back.
I appreciated that she came to the South with curiosity, not judgment. But, I think the book may have been intended to inspire empathy for the right, and it did not for me. I grew up around these people, I lived my whole life in the south, and now with the facts and stories in front of me, it made me even angrier that people would vote and think this way. It also, as a new resident of Louisiana, made me absolutely horrified of every body of water in the state!
Thought provoking and helpful though, and really thorough appendices in the back.
janegrace99's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best qualitative pieces I've read. Hochschild is transparent and humble in her description of her methods, the Deep Story is transferable and humanizing (even if I disagree with the idea fundamentally). Arlie Hochschild DOES NOT MISS. One of the best qualitative authors of our time.