The Rural Voter

The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America

By: Nicholas Jacobs, Daniel M. Shea

Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby

Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

The widening gulf between rural and urban America is becoming the most serious political divide of our day. Support for Democrats, up and down the ballot, has plummeted throughout the countryside, and the entire governing system is threatened by one-party dominance. After Donald Trump's surprising victories throughout rural America, pundits and journalists went searching for answers, popping into roadside diners and opining from afar. Rural Americans are supposedly bigots, culturally backward, lazy, scared of the future, and radical. But is it that simple?

This pathbreaking book pinpoints forces behind the rise of the "rural voter"—a new political identity that combines a deeply felt sense of place with an increasingly nationalized set of concerns. Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea uncover how this overwhelmingly crucial voting bloc emerged and how it has roiled American politics. They show how perceptions of economic and social change, racial anxieties, and a traditional way of life under assault have converged into a belief in rural uniqueness and separateness.

This book offers a timely warning that the chasm separating urban and rural Americans cannot be papered over with policies or rhetoric. Instead, The Rural Voter demonstrates, this division strikes at the heart of enduring conflicts over American identity.

©2024 Columbia University Press (P)2023 Tantor

I hope that every campaign office in Washington is reading this book

(note : This audio book does not include a PDF for the charts that are discussed in every chapter. This needs to be fixed)

This book was factual, scientific, and eye opening. The mistrust that has been sewn between the political parties has led people like me to hold incorrect ideas about who is out there voting and what is motivating them.

The authors show that we don't have to appease extremists or compromise our principles to heal this divide. Once you understand the distortions that are commonly believed, you can talk about real issues and realistic solutions and bring people back to the center.

An Explanation I Can Relate To

There is lots of data to sort through but the authors do an excellent job of telling a compelling story and backing it up with their own research and personal experience. I suggest you read this book and DO NOT read "White Rural Rage" (Schaller, Waldman), who use this same research to 'prove' rural voters are 'enraged,' a conclusion unsupported by this data. Even Krugman and other wonks are proven wrong here. This is a great book but 'okay audiobook. The voice actor messes up the pronunciation of a lot of the words (foment/ferment, etc). Still worthwhile as an audiobook because of the content.