diacritics's reviews
342 reviews

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

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An important book in our age. It gave me a systematic understanding of an infamous subset of Americans since my youth. I was especially impressed by the middle chapter where the author explains the mindset of these far-right Lousisianians, using a queue as analogy, as I've always found it to be difficult to grasp. 

The only flaw being it was completely silent on the minorities in the deep South (blacks, youth, queers, neurodivergent), I would have liked to see their perspective and relationship with their conservative families and neighbours.

I read this in early 2025 – the beginning of Trump's second term – and it has proven to be relevant. Even though I could understand the source of discontent for Trump supporters in the deep South, I cannot accept their way of solving it. We can never predict the future, but so far, their actions have worsened the economy and kick-started the decline of American Hegemony. In other words, the opposite of "Make America Great Again".