Why I want them: Trump blames immigrants for people’s problems. I want books I can share with family and friends that tell the real story of why their communities are worse off than they were decades ago.
My take: A lot of people dismiss Trumpian notions that life used to be better as a mere appeal to nostalgia, but I think that’s a mistake. I grew up in the 80s and 90s in a rapidly declining small town. I watched as it went from being a place buoyed by good-paying union steel, coal and manufacturing jobs to a place with few opportunities. Restaurants, small businesses and churches all closed. People moved away, splitting up families.
Military service got me out of there, and a college degree kept me out. But, unlike a lot of my friends from other parts of the U.S., I know that when Trump and his ilk talk about American decline, they are in fact speaking to something that is real for millions of Americans living in deindustrialized regions.
It’s so infuriating to me that he uses this grievance to blame immigrants — people with very little power or agency — for why things are worse.
I want to be able to have meaningful conversations about forces like globalization and changes to labor policy, tax law, and whatever factors caused the hollowing out of industrial regions.
FWIW I’m not particularly looking for books focused on contemporary politics. And I’m not particularly interested in books about the opioid crisis. I’ve read excellent books like Empire of Pain, Dreamland, etc.. but I think people often overstate the role of opioids in rustbelt decline. The economic problems I mentioned all precede the crisis by at least two decades.
by The-flaneur
5 Comments
The first book that came to mind is {{The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah}}, which is a survival story of a woman trying to raise her children during the Dust Bowl. It’s not specifically a story of industrial decline – more of a transition from farming (all they’ve ever known) and changes they had to make due to relentless dust storms.
{{Trust by Hernan Dias}} leads up to the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Look up books on Ronald Reagan’s deregulation policies because he’s the reason it became easier to bust unions and for companies to send their industrial jobs overseas for cheap labor.
Evil Genius
{{Evil Geniuses by Kurt Andersen}} might be up your alley. While contemporary politics is featured, a good portion of the book is working through what led up to where the US is at now – with emphasis on the last 50 years of the 20th Century.
With the caveat that I haven’t finished it yet, “These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America” might have some of what you’re looking for. It traces what happens when private equity steps in, taking over companies that small communities have depended on and running them into the ground. If you live in a small town, there’s a chance that this has happened or is currently happening to your rural hospital, nursing home or newspaper as well.