A review by sara_shocks
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

3.0

This was an aggravating read in many ways. I think her methodology produced some interesting results, but frankly, Hochschild does not seem to understand the South, even after actually spending time there. Her unwillingness to confront racism and classism (caste, perhaps) more directly with her subjects was disappointing at best. (An interview subject actually says she wants the government to sterilize poor people--paying them for it--and Hochschild does not really dive into where this line of eugenics thought comes from!) I think some of the class issues she fails to address relate to America's inability to discuss class more broadly. To be fair, some of my own ideas have been influenced by later research (Metzl's Dying of Whiteness findings, more recent discussions I've seen around the fragile footing of the white middle class)

I'm also disappointed she managed to repeat ideas that the Civil Rights movement in the South was all about Northerners coming in and erased local activism. I am more acquainted with some of the Civil Rights Movement grassroots activism in the Mississippi Delta, but I feel confident that Louisiana had people doing the work too. (This is related to her unwillingness to confront some of her interview subjects on how their personal ideas of history are not necessarily true/the whole truth, particularly around race.)