This book has been on my radar for quite a while, a few years infact, but I just haven’t gotten around to reading it until now. I recall receiving the Scribe Publications e-newsletter and seeing the great reviews it attracted and I think it also sold out for a time. So, although I’m on a mission to read all the un-read books on my shelf before I buy more, I lapsed a couple of weeks ago on a trip to Borders. It was on the 3 for 2 table with a couple of other books I sought.
Joe Bageant was born in the small American town of Winchester and after being away for a couple of decades or so returns to his roots. His story of rediscovering the people he grew up with (beer-drinking, church-going, gun-loving, low wage workers) provides the most interesting current day commentary of middle (low?) America. The subtitle – Dispatches From America’s Class War - is spot on. As someone who was born into this life, Bageant is able to comment on the attitudes and lifestyles of these people without sounding patronising and holier than thou. He uses humour and empathy to tell this story and what results is an eminently readable book that at moments made me laugh out loud, but at other moments filled me with sadness. The way his subjects are completely uninformed and misguided about their attitudes to government, guns and mortgages and the acceptance ‘dumbing down’ is both a social and political commentary. This is the America we rarely hear about.
The edition I read was recently released with a new foreword which brought the book right up to the post-GFC climate. This is an essential read for anyone interested in American current affairs.
