A review by nbcknwlf
What's the Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank

3.0

Just ok. The book's entire premise is neatly summarized in the Epilogue and you can probably skip the rest and just read that to get the meat of what the author wants to say if you're short on time. I found the rest of the book tedious. Frank makes a lot of astute observations but seems so intent on demonstrating why someone would be an idiot to believe anything said by conservatives that it just comes off as condescending and beating a dead horse. The most interesting things to me were the historical bits showing shift in perspective - i felt those spoke for themselves pretty well but then he just keeps beating you over the head with his take on it.

It's a decent book, and definitely timely in the wake of the recent election even tho it is over 10 years old. Glad I read it, not sure i recommend it. I dont think it would convince anyone that didn't already agree with Frank. Maybe it's not supposed to.