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A review by findyourgoldenhour
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
5.0
I put this book on hold at the library shortly after the 2016 election; I read an NPR article that recommended two books based on how you voted: if you voted for Trump, they recommended Between The World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates. If you voted for Hillary, they recommended this book.
After the election, I kept hearing, "if you want to understand Trump voters, read Hillbilly Elegy!" I read that one before the election, and I thought it was a good memoir based on one man's experience. I don't think he set out with the objective of explaining the perspective of an entire voting block when he wrote that book; I think his publishers saw an opportunity to promote it after Nov 2016 when a lot of people in Blue Country were reeling.
This book, however, does attempt to help liberal Democrats understand where rural Republican Tea Party/Trump voters are coming from. The author is a sociologist who set out with this objective in mind. And while I found a LOT of it frustrating (mainly how people continue to vote against their own self-interest, to the benefit of big corporations), it was the first time I could see over what Hochschild calls the "empathy wall". She spent a lot of time with people in these communities in Louisiana, and she was able to articulate a narrative that explains the mindset. I don't agree with it or relate to it, but I feel like I understand it better having read this book. She also included appendices that fact-checked a lot of the sentiments that she repeatedly heard (about the number of people on welfare, for example, or about the stereotypes of government employees). I highly recommend this book to anyone who truly wants to see where people are coming from but struggle to understand in this current political climate.
After the election, I kept hearing, "if you want to understand Trump voters, read Hillbilly Elegy!" I read that one before the election, and I thought it was a good memoir based on one man's experience. I don't think he set out with the objective of explaining the perspective of an entire voting block when he wrote that book; I think his publishers saw an opportunity to promote it after Nov 2016 when a lot of people in Blue Country were reeling.
This book, however, does attempt to help liberal Democrats understand where rural Republican Tea Party/Trump voters are coming from. The author is a sociologist who set out with this objective in mind. And while I found a LOT of it frustrating (mainly how people continue to vote against their own self-interest, to the benefit of big corporations), it was the first time I could see over what Hochschild calls the "empathy wall". She spent a lot of time with people in these communities in Louisiana, and she was able to articulate a narrative that explains the mindset. I don't agree with it or relate to it, but I feel like I understand it better having read this book. She also included appendices that fact-checked a lot of the sentiments that she repeatedly heard (about the number of people on welfare, for example, or about the stereotypes of government employees). I highly recommend this book to anyone who truly wants to see where people are coming from but struggle to understand in this current political climate.