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

5.0

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The author is a liberal woman from Berkeley who decides she will immerse herself in Louisiana culture, particularly that of the Tea Party....not to critique it, but to truly understand it. I was impressed both with her ability to be honest about her own conflicted feelings as she forms relationships with people, and also with her ability to paint a real picture that makes you empathize with "the other side." I will be honest... my journey reading the book probably paralleled her journey making it.... For probably 2/3 of the book, I would read, understand, and internally say "yes, but!!!!!" When I got to page 221, when she relays the story of being at a Trump rally, I had a sinking feeling. She had painted such a story at that point that I totally understood how "this" could have happened. I really did get it.

At the end of the book, she reflects on "what she would say" to her liberal friends and her new friends on the right. What she would say does leave you with some hope that there can be a common ground.

I also appreciate the fact checking she included in the appendices...and that she kept it separate from the book. We don't win others over by facts, but rather by "emotional self-interest" as she calls it, and she really tried to put into play what she discovered through her exploration by keeping the fact-checking separate from the story.