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

"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?"--

While I am glad to have read this book and feel that I understand the right-wing a bit better, I'm still boggled by how irrationally these voters behave.

I feel really ambivalent about this book for a lot of reasons. One is that I don't think it's that useful to reinforce the notion that there even is an “empathy wall” between liberals and conservatives. I frequently read and hear about how elitist liberals are always looking down and sneering at rural conservatives, and I don't doubt that that's how they feel, but I don't see evidence that that's what's actually happening, at least not on any kind of significant scale.

I'm of the belief that facts matter and there is such thing as an objective reality, and - setting aside the separately disturbing bit about how we're in the end times and the Earth is going up in flames so who cares about this existence! - it's extremely disturbing how much of Hochschild's characterization of these Tea Party/Trump-supporters' “deep story” is based on misperceptions if not outright falsehoods. Hochschild doesn't seem to seriously address this with her interlocutors, which is maybe outside the scope of this book.

It's a fairly interesting look across the cultural and political divide, anyway, although it's probably not going to be especially revelatory to anyone who's paying attention. About 2/3 of the way through this book, I kept thinking, No surprises here. But there are some fascinating anecdotes and Hochschild's discussion near the end of the book about this conservative “deep story” seems like a useful analytical frame. I am very curious to read what folks on the right - and even people in the book - think of it.

(On one nitpicking note, the chief U.S. chemistry industry lobby is the American Chemistry Council, not the American Chemical Association, which as far as I know does not exist.)

A must read for everyone, especially coastal liberals.

4.5 stars. I highly recommend this book to readers across the entire political spectrum. The author's empathetic approach in how she conducted her research was appealing to me. She seems to sincerely wants to bridge the gap between right and left by understanding the “deep story” that we all tell when expressing our political viewpoints and values. This book is definitely a step in the right direction if we all want to understand one another better.