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The lies of the land : seeing rural America for what it is--and isn't / Steven Conn.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chicago, IL ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2023Copyright date: ©2023Description: x, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780226826905
  • 0226826902
Other title:
  • Seeing rural America for what it is--and is not
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Preface : that empty feeling -- Introduction : crisis and myth -- Militarized space. Englneering the landscape; From rural community to army town; The Cold War comes to the UP; Postscript : addicted to the military -- Industrial spaces. Factories instead of farms; Cars in the cornfields -- Rural Inc. Who's afraid of big?; Chains "r" us -- The suburbanization of rural America. Creating post-rural space; The politics of post-rural complaint -- Conclusion : places vs. spaces.
Summary: "There's no such thing as rural America. Or, rather, as Steven Conn argues, "rural America" is a phrase that has been made to mean so many things that it doesn't mean anything. In fact, he maintains, rural America--so often characterized as in crisis or in danger of being left behind--has been shaped by the same major forces as the rest of the country since at least the end of the Civil War: militarization, industrialization, corporatization, and suburbanization. Conn calls for us to dispense with the fantasies and visions that are often imposed on rural America, in the hopes of more productively addressing the real challenges facing all of America"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 306.0973 C752 Available 33111011220254
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A "piercing, unsentimental" ( New Yorker ) history that boldly challenges the idea of a rural American crisis.



It seems everyone has an opinion about rural America. Is it gripped in a tragic decline? Or is it on the cusp of a glorious revival? Is it the key to understanding America today? Steven Conn argues that we're missing the real question: Is rural America even a thing? No, says Conn, who believes we see only what we want to see in the lands beyond the suburbs--fantasies about moral (or backward) communities, simpler (or repressive) living, and what it means to be authentically (or wrongheadedly) American. If we want to build a better future, Conn argues, we must accept that these visions don't exist and never did.



In The Lies of the Land , Conn shows that rural America--so often characterized as in crisis or in danger of being left behind--has actually been at the center of modern American history, shaped by the same forces as everywhere else in the country: militarization, industrialization, corporatization, and suburbanization. Examining each of these forces in turn, Conn invites us to dispense with the lies and half-truths we've believed about rural America and to pursue better solutions to the very real challenges shared all across our nation.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface : that empty feeling -- Introduction : crisis and myth -- Militarized space. Englneering the landscape; From rural community to army town; The Cold War comes to the UP; Postscript : addicted to the military -- Industrial spaces. Factories instead of farms; Cars in the cornfields -- Rural Inc. Who's afraid of big?; Chains "r" us -- The suburbanization of rural America. Creating post-rural space; The politics of post-rural complaint -- Conclusion : places vs. spaces.

"There's no such thing as rural America. Or, rather, as Steven Conn argues, "rural America" is a phrase that has been made to mean so many things that it doesn't mean anything. In fact, he maintains, rural America--so often characterized as in crisis or in danger of being left behind--has been shaped by the same major forces as the rest of the country since at least the end of the Civil War: militarization, industrialization, corporatization, and suburbanization. Conn calls for us to dispense with the fantasies and visions that are often imposed on rural America, in the hopes of more productively addressing the real challenges facing all of America"-- Provided by publisher.

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