I found myself profoundly frustrated by their - to my mind - seemingly willful blindness to the forces that most threaten them: the oil and chemical firms that poison their water and land, that literally cause their homes to collapse, yet that they welcome and defend because of the promise of jobs. It is precisely the decency of Hochschild's interviewees that gives the book its power. It would be, I think, a hard-hearted reader who did not feel at least some measure of respect for Hochschild's interview subjects: they come across as normal, decent people trying their best to live dignified lives and take care of one another, the kind of people you would probably feel perfectly comfortable having as neighbors you might disagree with them about politics and religion, but you'd know they'd be there for you if you needed them, just as you'd be there for them. What evolves over the course of "Strangers" is a complicated portrait of people who have tried to "play by the rules" and live "good Christian lives," but feel themselves demeaned, betrayed and left behind by politicians and many of their countrymen.
She came to know them, got them to speak candidly about their values and how they see their lives and their country. The author spent a good bit of time with people on the far right - self-identifying Tea Party members from coastal Louisiana. In many ways, this book reveals more about the nature of our national divide than "Hillbilly Elegy" does. 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? Russell Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Instead, Russell 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.
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. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Russell 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.
In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Russell 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.
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