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A review by alexisrt
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
5.0
I had some trepidation about this book because of so many bad articles purporting to explore our political divide, especially in the Trump era. Hochschild's book is significantly better than most of these efforts. She focuses on a single area (south Louisiana, especially the Lake Charles area) and particularly on the petrochemical injury and its disastrous effects on the environment. The book succeeds because while her bias is clear--she thinks the right wing is factually wrong, and brings evidence to show how their policies have failed Louisiana and its people--she is not condescending towards the people she's studying. Their feelings are real, and they're complex individuals.
The conclusions she draws aren't earth shattering--people believe in these ideas in part because of life experience (government has not shown itself to be effective, especially when it comes to environmental regulation--if they'll stop you from fishing, but not stop companies from dumping in the bayou, what good are the regulations?) and in part because of their values and world view. She does a nice job of letting people tell their stories and explain themselves, and puts it into a good politician and historical context in a relatively short space.
The conclusions she draws aren't earth shattering--people believe in these ideas in part because of life experience (government has not shown itself to be effective, especially when it comes to environmental regulation--if they'll stop you from fishing, but not stop companies from dumping in the bayou, what good are the regulations?) and in part because of their values and world view. She does a nice job of letting people tell their stories and explain themselves, and puts it into a good politician and historical context in a relatively short space.