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Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
mattneely's review against another edition
4.0
Good sociology and a great voice. Left me wanting a little more about the "deep story."
fallingletters's review against another edition
5.0
Review originally published 10 August 2017 at Falling Letters.
I read Strangers in Their Own Land in June. I haven’t been able to stop talking about it. When I first heard of this book, I immediately put it on hold at the library. I once thought the beliefs and convictions of the American far right were beyond my understanding. How could I ever understand how someone could hold values so severely divergent from my own? In Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild undertakes the important task of “truly listen[ing] to the other side in order to understand why they believe – and feel – the way they do”. Through Hochschild’s book, I have come to an understanding of how someone might hold the beliefs of the far right.
One friend of mine commented that they didn’t want to read this book because they didn’t want to empathize too closely with the actions the right. I don’t believe that would be an effect of reading Strangers in Their Own Land. My experience was that I could now understand the perspective and logic of the right, if not perfectly then at least to a better degree than before I read this book. I still think most of their fundamental beliefs are significantly flawed. For example, a few people spoke about their need to elect an anti-abortion candidate over one who was pro-environmental protection (even though they wanted the environment better protected) because God would judge them over the abortion issue and not the environment issue. I will likely never understand how someone can put their personal religion ahead of the rights of their fellow human beings. Yet I can now see how those feelings would influence their political actions.
Other aspects of their beliefs I do have a clearer understanding of. I have some small sympathy there because, from my perspective, these beliefs stem from misunderstanding, ignorance and fear. (If only we could facilitate better communication between the left and the right…) Hochschild crafts what she calls a ‘deep story’ halfway through the book. This is a story that “removes judgement [and] fact to tell us how things feel” (135). She writes in second person to share the experience of a Tea Party member. This narrative in the middle of the book helps put her research into perspective. Tea Partiers are emotional, feeling people, just like anyone else, and this story shows how they came to feel what they feel in today’s world.
Hochschild explores how Tea Partiers believe that liberals want them to feel bad for everyone who is ‘behind them in line’, when they feel “downtrodden themselves and want only to look ‘up’ to the elite” (219). They see people who receive social benefits as receiving a leg up, as jumping ahead in line when they don’t deserve to. One person is quoted as saying, “People think we’re not good people if we don’t feel sorry for blacks and immigrants and Syrian refugees. But I am a good person and I don’t feel sorry for them.” Well. :/ There’s the fundamental difference. I believe in acknowledging privilege and trying to make the world a better place for those who aren’t as lucky as me. It’s not exactly about feeling sorry for someone, yet that’s what the right wing is hearing from the left wing. Through Hochschild’s exploration of various social, religious, and community factors, I see now how someone might come to such right wing beliefs.
There are a lot more quotes I could use to exemplify how worked up I got while reading this book. I would shake the book and scream internally, “How can you think that?!” While I may have asked that question before, it becomes almost even more frustrating to ask that question when you can see the logic and emotions behind their beliefs, and you can see where the thread of their beliefs gets pulled away from your own. Yet that’s why this is such a good read – it took me into the minds of people I would never be able to comprehend otherwise.
The Bottom Line: For those of us on the left who want to understand why the American right wing is right wing, Strangers in Their Own Land makes for an invaluable read.
I read Strangers in Their Own Land in June. I haven’t been able to stop talking about it. When I first heard of this book, I immediately put it on hold at the library. I once thought the beliefs and convictions of the American far right were beyond my understanding. How could I ever understand how someone could hold values so severely divergent from my own? In Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild undertakes the important task of “truly listen[ing] to the other side in order to understand why they believe – and feel – the way they do”. Through Hochschild’s book, I have come to an understanding of how someone might hold the beliefs of the far right.
One friend of mine commented that they didn’t want to read this book because they didn’t want to empathize too closely with the actions the right. I don’t believe that would be an effect of reading Strangers in Their Own Land. My experience was that I could now understand the perspective and logic of the right, if not perfectly then at least to a better degree than before I read this book. I still think most of their fundamental beliefs are significantly flawed. For example, a few people spoke about their need to elect an anti-abortion candidate over one who was pro-environmental protection (even though they wanted the environment better protected) because God would judge them over the abortion issue and not the environment issue. I will likely never understand how someone can put their personal religion ahead of the rights of their fellow human beings. Yet I can now see how those feelings would influence their political actions.
Other aspects of their beliefs I do have a clearer understanding of. I have some small sympathy there because, from my perspective, these beliefs stem from misunderstanding, ignorance and fear. (If only we could facilitate better communication between the left and the right…) Hochschild crafts what she calls a ‘deep story’ halfway through the book. This is a story that “removes judgement [and] fact to tell us how things feel” (135). She writes in second person to share the experience of a Tea Party member. This narrative in the middle of the book helps put her research into perspective. Tea Partiers are emotional, feeling people, just like anyone else, and this story shows how they came to feel what they feel in today’s world.
Hochschild explores how Tea Partiers believe that liberals want them to feel bad for everyone who is ‘behind them in line’, when they feel “downtrodden themselves and want only to look ‘up’ to the elite” (219). They see people who receive social benefits as receiving a leg up, as jumping ahead in line when they don’t deserve to. One person is quoted as saying, “People think we’re not good people if we don’t feel sorry for blacks and immigrants and Syrian refugees. But I am a good person and I don’t feel sorry for them.” Well. :/ There’s the fundamental difference. I believe in acknowledging privilege and trying to make the world a better place for those who aren’t as lucky as me. It’s not exactly about feeling sorry for someone, yet that’s what the right wing is hearing from the left wing. Through Hochschild’s exploration of various social, religious, and community factors, I see now how someone might come to such right wing beliefs.
There are a lot more quotes I could use to exemplify how worked up I got while reading this book. I would shake the book and scream internally, “How can you think that?!” While I may have asked that question before, it becomes almost even more frustrating to ask that question when you can see the logic and emotions behind their beliefs, and you can see where the thread of their beliefs gets pulled away from your own. Yet that’s why this is such a good read – it took me into the minds of people I would never be able to comprehend otherwise.
The Bottom Line: For those of us on the left who want to understand why the American right wing is right wing, Strangers in Their Own Land makes for an invaluable read.
spaffrackett's review against another edition
4.0
Worthy glimpse into how the red half get it wrong or right.
bgprincipessa's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
I do not think the publisher did this book any favors. Its marketing materials really do not match the contents of the book, which is a huge disservice to the author. The author who did a LOT of work and research and clearly did a good job of putting that into a book, but it's just not the book I was expecting to read.
Yes, it is about a liberal from California going to Louisiana and talking to a bunch of Tea Partiers, and trying to understand their point of view or as she calls it "trying to build an empathy wall." To do this, she uses a "keyhole" issue of the environment - many of their lives have been greatly affected by pollution, so she wants to understand why they would be against government assistance or regulations in these circumstances.
But in doing so, it seems that many other issues are pushed to the sidelines, and I don't feel like environmental regulations are a good comparison to things like abortion or race relations; it doesn't have the same human aspect. And, boy, I was really frustrated by many of the people profiled in here. I tried, but I cannot relate to someone who says they refuse to have sympathy for a starving child. And then another person presents as a reasonable idea for government money that we dig up WWII veterans from France and re-inter them here in the US. But... we can't help... the alive people who are here right now??
Oh, and there was an entire section on the "deep story" that the author uses to explain how many of these people came to feel the way they do about the current state of America, and it's told in the second person. No. Do not try to garner my sympathies by putting me in someone's shoes and saying what I would have thought in that situation, because it did not work at all.
If I had known this book was going to be so much about the environment going in, I would have had a much different perspective on what to expect. I double-checked and the environment isn't anywhere in the publisher summary (one brief mention of a sinkhole). It really skews the way this book comes across.
I do not think the publisher did this book any favors. Its marketing materials really do not match the contents of the book, which is a huge disservice to the author. The author who did a LOT of work and research and clearly did a good job of putting that into a book, but it's just not the book I was expecting to read.
Yes, it is about a liberal from California going to Louisiana and talking to a bunch of Tea Partiers, and trying to understand their point of view or as she calls it "trying to build an empathy wall." To do this, she uses a "keyhole" issue of the environment - many of their lives have been greatly affected by pollution, so she wants to understand why they would be against government assistance or regulations in these circumstances.
But in doing so, it seems that many other issues are pushed to the sidelines, and I don't feel like environmental regulations are a good comparison to things like abortion or race relations; it doesn't have the same human aspect. And, boy, I was really frustrated by many of the people profiled in here. I tried, but I cannot relate to someone who says they refuse to have sympathy for a starving child. And then another person presents as a reasonable idea for government money that we dig up WWII veterans from France and re-inter them here in the US. But... we can't help... the alive people who are here right now??
Oh, and there was an entire section on the "deep story" that the author uses to explain how many of these people came to feel the way they do about the current state of America, and it's told in the second person. No. Do not try to garner my sympathies by putting me in someone's shoes and saying what I would have thought in that situation, because it did not work at all.
If I had known this book was going to be so much about the environment going in, I would have had a much different perspective on what to expect. I double-checked and the environment isn't anywhere in the publisher summary (one brief mention of a sinkhole). It really skews the way this book comes across.
coriandercake's review against another edition
2.0
This book in a summary:
Hochschild: I really want to understand why the right has such wrong ideas. Why would they be against government regulations and more government involvement?
Interviewee: Because the regulations we have aren't being followed. More regulation has led to more taxes which is only benefiting the people in power.
Hochschild: It's a real mystery. I can't understand it. Empathy Wall. The Great Paradox. What does it mean?
Hochschild: I really want to understand why the right has such wrong ideas. Why would they be against government regulations and more government involvement?
Interviewee: Because the regulations we have aren't being followed. More regulation has led to more taxes which is only benefiting the people in power.
Hochschild: It's a real mystery. I can't understand it. Empathy Wall. The Great Paradox. What does it mean?
klarastan's review against another edition
3.0
This book is too depressing to get more than 3 stars.
meowmediareads's review against another edition
5.0
Very informative though not prescriptive. A good reminder to watch our language. Are people *really* hicks or snobs depending on their political perspective? Absolutely fascinating appendix on facts vs perception. I'd consider this the emotional companion to the more intellectual/rhetorical book The Political Brain. No more hints because if you voted for Trump you should read this. Oh also if you voted for Clinton or other or even if you didn't vote.
a_well_read_life's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a conversation starter more than anything else, and personally I think we need more of that in this day and age. The author definitely writes with her own bias, but I don't think the point of this book is to be unbiased but rather to show that you can have empathy for people even if you fundamentally disagree with them. I do think she limits her scope a bit too much and I don't necessarily agree with all of her perceptions or conclusions. The book is far from perfect, but it was still an interesting and worthwhile read.
noahbw's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is an important and helpful read, though not necessarily the "best book." I really appreciated Hochschild's presence as a narrator throughout, particularly when she would catch herself as inserting her own opinion or being "stuck on her own side of the empathy wall." I do think that her "deep story" and archetypal characters are illuminating, but I would have loved a greater understanding of the historical factors that created them -- though perhaps this is a disciplinary problem more than anything else. I appreciate that this is a pretty brief and accessible read (only about 250 pages, broken into digestible chapters), but I wish there had been more depth. I finished feeling like she certainly opened something up here, but I didn't feel like I have fully gotten it -- perhaps because of my own empathy wall. Although the book predominantly describes the experiences of and relationships between people, it reads in a very social science kind of way, rather than nonfiction that reads more like a memoir or novel, and perhaps if I felt like I as the reader was more a part of the narrative, I would have a greater sense of what it means to be part of that deep story myself.
kierbart89's review against another edition
2.0
Not really a fan of the writing style / the way the author presents her data. Often comes across as condescending. I walk away feeling like I didn’t really learn much that I didn’t already know.