Strangers in Their Own Land

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.)