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The Overlooked Americans

The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country

by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett ...

How small-town America’s surprising success reshapes our understanding of the nation’s urban-rural divide, offering “the most balanced and broadest-ranging look at the topic” (Tyler Cowen, George Mason University).The Next Big Idea Club 2023 Must Read BookWe are frequently told rural America is in crisis. According to many journalists, academics, and politicians, our small towns have been hollowed ... Read more

Was $18.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

How small-town America’s surprising success reshapes our understanding of the nation’s urban-rural divide, offering “the most balanced and broadest-ranging look at the topic” (Tyler Cowen, George Mason University).The Next Big Idea Club 2023 Must Read BookWe are frequently told rural America is in crisis. According to many journalists, academics, and politicians, our small towns have been hollowed
... Read more
The Injustice of Place

Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America

by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, Timothy J. Nelson ...

A sweeping and surprising new understanding of extreme poverty in America from the authors of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.“This book forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light.” (Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America and Evicted)Three of the nation’s top scholars – known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their ... Read more

$12.99 USD

A sweeping and surprising new understanding of extreme poverty in America from the authors of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.“This book forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light.” (Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America and Evicted)Three of the nation’s top scholars – known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their
... Read more
American Fire

Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land

by Monica Hesse ...

A New York Times Notable Book of the YearA Washington Post Notable Book of the YearOne of Amazon’s 20 Best Books of the YearNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Bustle, NPR, NYLON, and ThrillistFinalist for the Goodreads Book Award (Nonfiction)Finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime)A Book of the Month Club SelectionA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection<p... ... Read more

$11.69 USD

A New York Times Notable Book of the YearA Washington Post Notable Book of the YearOne of Amazon’s 20 Best Books of the YearNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Bustle, NPR, NYLON, and ThrillistFinalist for the Goodreads Book Award (Nonfiction)Finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime)A Book of the Month Club SelectionA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection<p...
... Read more
Hill Folks

A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image

by Brooks Blevins ...

The Ozark region, located in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, has long been the domain of the folklorist and the travel writer — a circumstance that has helped shroud its history in stereotype and misunderstanding. With Hill Folks, Brooks Blevins offers the first in-depth historical treatment of the Arkansas Ozarks. He traces the region’s history from the early nineteenth century through ... Read more

$28.49 USD

The Ozark region, located in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, has long been the domain of the folklorist and the travel writer — a circumstance that has helped shroud its history in stereotype and misunderstanding. With Hill Folks, Brooks Blevins offers the first in-depth historical treatment of the Arkansas Ozarks. He traces the region’s history from the early nineteenth century through
... Read more
Country Queers

A Love Letter

by Rae Garringer ...

Part photo book, part memoir, part oral history project, this volume paints a vivid portrait of queer and trans experiences in rural areas and small towns across the US.In 2013, Rae Garringer embarked on the Country Queers oral history project with a borrowed audio recorder, a flip phone, and a paper atlas in a Subaru Forester with over 160,000 miles on it. Raised on a sheep farm in southeastern ... Read more

$17.99 USD

Part photo book, part memoir, part oral history project, this volume paints a vivid portrait of queer and trans experiences in rural areas and small towns across the US.In 2013, Rae Garringer embarked on the Country Queers oral history project with a borrowed audio recorder, a flip phone, and a paper atlas in a Subaru Forester with over 160,000 miles on it. Raised on a sheep farm in southeastern
... Read more
The Road Home

by Eliza Thomas ...

It occurred to Eliza Thomas when she hit her forties that home might be "someplace you made." A modest cabin in the woods of Vermont seemed like a good place to start. Thomas's funny, heartwarming experiences transform the weekend cabin into a real home--a place where Thomas paints the floor the same color as her grandmother's beach house porch; where hordes of ladybugs come to visit one Indian ... Read more

Was $11.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

It occurred to Eliza Thomas when she hit her forties that home might be "someplace you made." A modest cabin in the woods of Vermont seemed like a good place to start. Thomas's funny, heartwarming experiences transform the weekend cabin into a real home--a place where Thomas paints the floor the same color as her grandmother's beach house porch; where hordes of ladybugs come to visit one Indian
... Read more
Wastelands

The True Story of Farm Country on Trial

by Corban Addison ...

"Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and told with the air of suspense that few writers can handle, Wastelands is a story I wish I had written." —From the Foreword by John GrishamThe once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard ... Read more

$13.99 USD

"Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and told with the air of suspense that few writers can handle, Wastelands is a story I wish I had written." —From the Foreword by John GrishamThe once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard
... Read more
Home Town

by Tracy Kidder ...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains invites us into a lively Massachusetts town and explores the lives of the ordinary and extraordinary people who live there.“This is a book rich with a sense of place, woven like a tapestry, animated by the lives within it, both past and present.”—Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil ActionIn this splendid book, one of America’s masters of ... Read more

$14.99 USD

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains invites us into a lively Massachusetts town and explores the lives of the ordinary and extraordinary people who live there.“This is a book rich with a sense of place, woven like a tapestry, animated by the lives within it, both past and present.”—Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil ActionIn this splendid book, one of America’s masters of
... Read more
Mailman

My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home

by Stephen Starring Grant ...

The triumphant New York Times bestseller!“Warm and oddly patriotic...A working-class hero is something to be.” —Dwight Garner, The New York TimesAn uproarious and “utterly charming” (The Washington Post) memoir by a mailman in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, who found that working for the post office saved his life, taught him who he was, gave him purpose, and educated him deeply abo... ... Read more

$13.99 USD

The triumphant New York Times bestseller!“Warm and oddly patriotic...A working-class hero is something to be.” —Dwight Garner, The New York TimesAn uproarious and “utterly charming” (The Washington Post) memoir by a mailman in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, who found that working for the post office saved his life, taught him who he was, gave him purpose, and educated him deeply abo...
... Read more
Amity and Prosperity

One Family and the Fracturing of America

by Eliza Griswold ...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionIn Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the ... Read more

$12.99 USD

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionIn Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom’s impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman’s transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the
... Read more
You Only Live Once

The laugh-out-loud, feel-good romantic comedy from Maxine Morrey

by Maxine Morrey ...

Series series The Read Yourself Happy Collection
Discover the unforgettable and utterly uplifting love story, from the award-winning top 50 bestseller Maxine MorreyPerfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella.When Lily’s husband dies, she moves to the edge of a tiny village, settling into a solitary life, her only real company her brother and his family. A quiet life becomes her safe space, with no risk of getting hurt.When her ... Read more

$4.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Discover the unforgettable and utterly uplifting love story, from the award-winning top 50 bestseller Maxine MorreyPerfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sophie Kinsella.When Lily’s husband dies, she moves to the edge of a tiny village, settling into a solitary life, her only real company her brother and his family. A quiet life becomes her safe space, with no risk of getting hurt.When her
... Read more
The Third Rainbow Girl

The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia

by Emma Copley Eisenberg ...

***** A NEW YORK TIMES "100 Notable Books of 2020" ***A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia—and the writer determined to put the pieces back together.**In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an ... Read more

$13.99 USD

***** A NEW YORK TIMES "100 Notable Books of 2020" ***A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia—and the writer determined to put the pieces back together.**In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an
... Read more
Appalachia

A History

by John Alexander Williams ...

Interweaving social, political, environmental, economic, and popular history, John Alexander Williams chronicles four and a half centuries of the Appalachian past. Along the way, he explores Appalachia’s long-contested boundaries and the numerous, often contradictory images that have shaped perceptions of the region as both the essence of America and a place apart.Williams begins his story in the ... Read more

$26.59 USD

Interweaving social, political, environmental, economic, and popular history, John Alexander Williams chronicles four and a half centuries of the Appalachian past. Along the way, he explores Appalachia’s long-contested boundaries and the numerous, often contradictory images that have shaped perceptions of the region as both the essence of America and a place apart.Williams begins his story in the
... Read more
Fractured Communities

Risk, Impacts, and Protest Against Hydraulic Fracking in U.S. Shale Regions

by Stephanie A. Malin, Hilary Boudet, Sherry Cable, Brittany Gaustad, Peter Hall, James Maples, Tamara Mix, Carmel Price, Dakota K.T. Raynes, Stacia Ryder, Suzanne Staggenborg, Trang Tran, Ion Bogdan Vasi, Cameron Thomas Whitley, Patricia Widener ...

Series series Nature, Society, and Culture
While environmental disputes and conflicts over fossil fuel extraction have grown in recent years, few issues have been as contentious in the twenty-first century as those surrounding the impacts of unconventional natural gas and oil development using hydraulic drilling and fracturing techniques—more commonly known as “fracking”—on local communities. In Fractured Communities, Anthony E. Ladd and ... Read more

$24.49 USD

While environmental disputes and conflicts over fossil fuel extraction have grown in recent years, few issues have been as contentious in the twenty-first century as those surrounding the impacts of unconventional natural gas and oil development using hydraulic drilling and fracturing techniques—more commonly known as “fracking”—on local communities. In Fractured Communities, Anthony E. Ladd and
... Read more
Travels with Foxfire

Stories of People, Passions, and Practices from Southern Appalachia

by Phil Hudgins, Jessica Phillips ...

Series series Foxfire Series
Since 1972, the Foxfire books have preserved and celebrated the culture of Southern Appalachia for hundreds of thousands of readers. In Travels with Foxfire, native son Phil Hudgins and Foxfire student Jessica Phillips travel from Georgia to the Carolinas, Tennessee to Kentucky, collecting the stories of the men and women who call the region home.Across more than thirty essays, we discover the ... Read more

$7.99 USD

Since 1972, the Foxfire books have preserved and celebrated the culture of Southern Appalachia for hundreds of thousands of readers. In Travels with Foxfire, native son Phil Hudgins and Foxfire student Jessica Phillips travel from Georgia to the Carolinas, Tennessee to Kentucky, collecting the stories of the men and women who call the region home.Across more than thirty essays, we discover the
... Read more
Porkopolis

American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm

by Alex Blanchette ...

In the 1990s a small midwestern American town approved the construction of a massive pork complex, where almost 7 million hogs are birthed, raised, and killed every year. In Porkopolis Alex Blanchette explores how this rural community has been reorganized around the life and death cycles of corporate pigs. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork, Blanchette immerses readers into the ... Read more

$20.89 USD

In the 1990s a small midwestern American town approved the construction of a massive pork complex, where almost 7 million hogs are birthed, raised, and killed every year. In Porkopolis Alex Blanchette explores how this rural community has been reorganized around the life and death cycles of corporate pigs. Drawing on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork, Blanchette immerses readers into the
... Read more
Running Out

In Search of Water on the High Plains

by Lucas Bessire ...

Finalist for the National Book AwardAn intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartlandThe Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of ... Read more

$15.09 USD

Finalist for the National Book AwardAn intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartlandThe Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of
... Read more
Mean Justice

A Town's Terror, A Prosecutor's Power, A Betrayal of Innocence

by Edward Humes ...

This national bestseller from the Pulitzer Prize-winner catapults readers to the dark side of the justice system with the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence.Besieged by murder, rape, and the vilest conspiracies, the all-American town of Bakersfield, California, found its saviors in a band of bold and savvy prosecutors who stepped in to create one of the toughest anti ... Read more

$15.99 USD

This national bestseller from the Pulitzer Prize-winner catapults readers to the dark side of the justice system with the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence.Besieged by murder, rape, and the vilest conspiracies, the all-American town of Bakersfield, California, found its saviors in a band of bold and savvy prosecutors who stepped in to create one of the toughest anti
... Read more
Home Now

How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town

by Cynthia Anderson ...

A moving chronicle of who belongs in America.Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston's ... Read more

$16.99 USD

A moving chronicle of who belongs in America.Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston's
... Read more
Why Rural Schools Matter

by Mara Casey Tieken ...

From headlines to documentaries, urban schools are at the center of current debates about education. From these accounts, one would never know that 51 million Americans live in rural communities and depend on their public schools to meet not only educational but also social and economic needs. For many communities, these schools are the ties that bind. Why Rural Schools Matter shares the untold ... Read more

$24.69 USD

From headlines to documentaries, urban schools are at the center of current debates about education. From these accounts, one would never know that 51 million Americans live in rural communities and depend on their public schools to meet not only educational but also social and economic needs. For many communities, these schools are the ties that bind. Why Rural Schools Matter shares the untold
... Read more
City Living

How Urban Spaces and Urban Dwellers Make One Another

by Quill R Kukla ...

City Living is about urban spaces, urban dwellers, and how these spaces and people make, shape, and change one another. More people live in cities than ever before: more than 50% of the earth's people are urban dwellers. As downtown cores gentrify and globalize, they are becoming more diverse than ever, along lines of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexuality, and age. Meanwhile, we are in ... Read more

$27.89 USD

City Living is about urban spaces, urban dwellers, and how these spaces and people make, shape, and change one another. More people live in cities than ever before: more than 50% of the earth's people are urban dwellers. As downtown cores gentrify and globalize, they are becoming more diverse than ever, along lines of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexuality, and age. Meanwhile, we are in
... Read more
Rural America in a Globalizing World

Problems and Prospects for the 2010's

by Elizabeth Ransom ...

Series series Rural Studies
This fourth Rural Sociological Society decennial volume provides advanced policy scholarship on rural North America during the 2010’s, closely reflecting upon the increasingly global nature of social, cultural, and economic forces and the impact of neoliberal ideology upon policy, politics, and power in rural areas.The chapters in this volume represent the expertise of an influential group of ... Read more

Was $35.99 USD Now $17.99 USD

This fourth Rural Sociological Society decennial volume provides advanced policy scholarship on rural North America during the 2010’s, closely reflecting upon the increasingly global nature of social, cultural, and economic forces and the impact of neoliberal ideology upon policy, politics, and power in rural areas.The chapters in this volume represent the expertise of an influential group of
... Read more
Exurbia Now

The Battleground of American Democracy

by David Masciotra ...

**“Focusing on greater Chicago, Masciotra argues that the exurbs, home to both monster trucks and liberals, are becoming a key political arena.” - New York Times Book ReviewThe suburbs have become too liberal and diverse for many white American conservatives, so “exurbia”—areas outside the cities and their suburbs—are becoming the staging ground for the radical right extremist insurgency . . .* ... Read more

$14.99 USD

**“Focusing on greater Chicago, Masciotra argues that the exurbs, home to both monster trucks and liberals, are becoming a key political arena.” - New York Times Book ReviewThe suburbs have become too liberal and diverse for many white American conservatives, so “exurbia”—areas outside the cities and their suburbs—are becoming the staging ground for the radical right extremist insurgency . . .*
... Read more
Hillbilly Highway

The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class

by Max Fraser ...

Series series Politics and Society in Modern America
“The best book to explain the world J. D. Vance came from is Max Fraser’s Hillbilly Highway.”—Jessica Wilkerson, author of To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social JusticeOver the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated to the booming factory towns and cities ... Read more

Was $24.49 USD Now $14.39 USD

“The best book to explain the world J. D. Vance came from is Max Fraser’s Hillbilly Highway.”—Jessica Wilkerson, author of To Live Here, You Have to Fight: How Women Led Appalachian Movements for Social JusticeOver the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated to the booming factory towns and cities
... Read more

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