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Strangers in Their Own Land Anger & Mourning on the American Right

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

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ISBN13: 9781620972250
ISBN10: 1620972255
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Book of Now
Essential reading on timely topics.

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Over a period of five years, sociologist Arlie Hochschild traveled to Louisiana's Bayou Country to interview staunch Tea Party supporters, with the goal of trying to understand what led them to an ideological view so different from her own and seemingly at odds with their personal interests. Strangers in Their Own Land is the product of those trips. In this eloquent, heartfelt investigation, Hochschild focuses on a selection of individuals and their stance on environmental regulation (Louisiana's waterways are some of the most polluted in the country) as an entry point to exploring their relationship with a range of issues. Ultimately, Hochschild hopes to cross what she calls the "empathy wall," an emotional barrier separating people with opposing views. For many, this wall seems particularly difficult to scale right now. Hochschild shows it's still possible. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

2016 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR NONFICTION

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in red America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from liberal government intervention abhor the very idea?

Review

"Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land will certainly be among the most timely of books in this moment of seeming near apocalypse... remarkable." Sean McCann, The Los Angeles Review of Books

Review

"Up close there is a depth to the concerns of Hochschild’s subjects.... They are concerned about pollution, and about the social decay that we see most vividly in the opioid epidemic. They are aware... of facts on the ground." Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker

Review

"Strangers in Their Own Land is extraordinary for its consistent empathy and the attention it pays to the emotional terrain of politics. It is billed as a book for this moment, but it will endure." Gabriel Thompson, Newsday

Review

"A generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party.... This is a smart, respectful and compelling book." Jason DeParle, The New York Times Book Review

Review

"Arlie Russell Hochschild’s work has never been more timely or more necessary, from the resurgence of interest in emotional labor to this deep, empathetic dive into the heart of the Right. Strangers in Their Own Land does what few dare to do—it takes seriously the role of feelings in politics." Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt

Review

"With the clear-headed empathy Arlie Russell Hochschild is famous for, she explored the central paradox of the political activists in the heart of 'cancer alley': they understand that the chemical and oil companies have destroyed their environment and sometimes their lives, but they remain ardent defenders of free market capitalism. There could not be a more important topic in current American politics, nor a better person to dissect it. Every page—every story and individual—is fascinating, and the emerging analysis is revelatory." Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Living with a Wild God

Review

"Hochschild journeys into a far different world than her liberal academic enclave of Berkeley, into the heartland of the nation’s political right, in order to understand how the conservative white working class sees America. With compassion and empathy, she discovers the narrative that gives meaning and expression to their lives—and which explains their political convictions, along with much else. Anyone who wants to understand modern America should read this captivating book." Robert B. Reich, chancellor’s professor of public policy, University of California, Berkeley

Synopsis

The National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller that became a guide and balm for a country struggling to understand the election of Donald Trump

"A generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party. . . . This is a smart, respectful and compelling book."
--Jason DeParle, The New York Times Book Review

When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, a bewildered nation turned to Strangers in Their Own Land to understand what Trump voters were thinking when they cast their ballots. Arlie Hochschild, one of the most influential sociologists of her generation, had spent the preceding five years immersed in the community around Lake Charles, Louisiana, a Tea Party stronghold. As Jedediah Purdy put it in the New Republic, "Hochschild is fascinated by how people make sense of their lives. . . . Her] attentive, detailed portraits . . . reveal a gulf between Hochchild's 'strangers in their own land' and a new elite." Already a favorite common read book in communities and on campuses across the country and called "humble and important" by David Brooks and "masterly" by Atul Gawande, Hochschild's book has been lauded by Noam Chomsky, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, and countless others.

The paperback edition features a new afterword by the author reflecting on the election of Donald Trump and the other events that have unfolded both in Louisiana and around the country since the hardcover edition was published, and also includes a readers' group guide at the back of the book.


About the Author

Arlie Russell Hochschild is one of the most influential sociologists of her generation. She is the author of nine books, including The Second Shift, The Time Bind, The Managed Heart, The Outsourced Self, and Strangers in Their Own Land (The New Press). Three of her books have been named as New York Times Notable Books of the Year and her work appears in sixteen languages. The winner of the Ulysses Medal as well as Guggenheim and Mellon grants, she lives in Berkeley, California.

Powell's Staff on PowellsBooks.Blog

We’ve been talking a lot at Powell’s about the election, our country’s deepening divide, and the challenges ahead of us. One thing we can all agree on is that there’s nowhere we’d rather be working right now than at a bookstore. Our faith in books and their ability to inform...

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Average customer rating 4.6 (5 comments)

`
writermala , April 26, 2017 (view all comments by writermala)
As the title suggests, the book deals with why Americans, particularly those on the right, feel like strangers in their own land. But, it is more than that; the author Arlie Russell Hochschild sets out from her Liberal home in Berkley, Ca, to the South and befriends Louisanians to try and explain the paradox of why despite increasing pollution the people are members of the Tea Party and vote for Republicans who talk of abolishing the EPA. Also, they are one of the poorest states but they do not want government funding. Hochscild starts out by talking of a Empathy Walls. she says, "An Empathy Wall is an obstacle to deep understanding of another person, one that can make us feel indifferent or even hostile to those who hold different beliefs or whose childhood is rooted in different circumstances." Rothschild does a detailed analysis of the paradox and the feelings of the people she meets and comes to the conclusion that ironically the right have more in common with the left; for many on the left feel like strangers in their own land too."

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Lukas , April 17, 2017 (view all comments by Lukas)
The 2016 election was the election that launched a thousand "what happened?" articles. We're just starting to get the deluge of post-election books. If you were Clinton supporter, you were endlessly chastised to get out of your bubble and your liberal preconceptions and understand the heartland Trump supporters. Oddly, I didn't hear much about rapid xenophobes and gun nuts being told to get out of their bubbles, which are apparently more authentic, however repulsive. "Strangers in Their Own Land" starts as a joke set-up: A Berkeley sociologist walks into a red state. . .Hochschild heads to Louisiana to try and understand the red state mindset in a state that, while heavily invested in and dependent on oil, was also the victim of one of the worst oil spills (the Deepwater Horizon) in history. Hochschild explores this paradox without going too deep, which is one of the book's flaws. She cites Thomas Frank's excellent "What's the Matter with Kansas?" as an inspiration, but she's not as caustic, incisive, and angry as he is. That't not to say it isn't an important book that sheds light on those that left coast elites too often dismiss, but I hardly think it will help bridge the considerable gap in our country.

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Bonnie Dooley , April 09, 2017 (view all comments by Bonnie Dooley)
As a person who is thinking, educated, and a conservative, this book is an excellent attempt to portray the struggles, hopes and dreams of people in the red states. Now, I wish the author would write a similar book for conservatives that might put a face of humanity, dignity, compassion and respect on liberals who seem to be completely out of touch with the American Dream as we see it.

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Reifer , December 06, 2016
Those of us on the left MUST understand those of us on the right or this nation is doomed!

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njcur , July 12, 2016 (view all comments by njcur)
This is a must read for all us liberals who are wondering what is going on in the thinking of the Right. Arlie Hochschild went to Louisiana and visited with a variety of folks down there. Most have been adversely effected by pollution and environmental disasters of many kinds. A huge number are Tea Party members. It is really interesting to get to know these people and see how they have come to believe as they do. They are thoughtful and caring people with a different way of viewing the US political situation. I am very grateful to Ms Hochschild for sharing this journey with us. I hope that our politicians will read Strangers in Their Own Land. I think that it would begin to break down the walls that have divided our country for so long. Thank you to Edelweiss and The New Press for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review. I am so glad they have put this out. It is an important book.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781620972250
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
09/06/2016
Publisher:
New Press
Pages:
368
Height:
1.50IN
Width:
6.20IN
Illustration:
Yes
Author:
Arlie Russell Hochschild

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