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The book offers a must-needed insider's perspective on the region.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0998904147\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780998904146\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Catte, Elizabeth, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Belt Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Belt Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Feb 2018)","offer_id":45657949077701,"sku":"9780998904146","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780998904146.jpg?v=1768896382"},{"product_id":"state-fairs-growing-american-craft","title":"State Fairs: Growing American Craft","description":"\u003cb\u003eYour ticket to the best state fair crafts--from Choctaw basketry to sculpted butter cows--with more than 100 amazing images of American craft art!\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA Dolly Parton crop art portrait. Size-96 cowboy boots. A quilt incorporating the jean outfits of a farmer and his son. This book features more than 100 photos of extraordinary and unconventional crafts from state and tribal fairs, including needlework, basketry, ceramics, crop art, butter sculpture, Nordic Rosemaling, and Spanish Colonial embroidery. In essays that explore the history of crafting at state fairs from the 1840s to present day, contributors reflect on: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eThe way fairgrounds connect people through craft\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow the fair provided a public platform for women's achievements\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe significance of Indigenous fairs\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e4-H and youth participation\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe relationship between fairs and studio craft\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCrafts in unexpected places, including tractor and machine halls, horticulture and dairy displays, rodeos, and horse races\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom kitschy to tender, the highlighted crafts and the local and regional traditions behind them create a vibrant portrait of American culture. Come one, come all! \u003ci\u003eState Fairs \u003c\/i\u003ehas a little something for everyone.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1588348008\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781588348005\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Savig, Mary, Si American Art Museum, Bear Robe, Amber-Brown\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Smithsonian Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Smithsonian Books","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Sep 2025)","offer_id":45659174994117,"sku":"9781588348005","price":37.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781588348005.jpg?v=1768906494"},{"product_id":"hillbilly-elegy-a-memoir-of-a-family-and-culture-in-crisis","title":"Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eHillbilly Elegy \u003c\/em\u003erecounts Vice President J.D. 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The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were \"dirt poor and in love,\" and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of \u003cem\u003eHillbilly Elegy \u003c\/em\u003eplays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, \u003cem\u003eHillbilly Elegy \u003c\/em\u003eis the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0062300547\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062300546\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Vance, J. 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Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It's home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory's telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity. But a community that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural and quiet can serve as a cover for something darker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStephen Kurczy embedded in Green Bank, making the residents of this small Appalachian village his neighbors. He shopped at the town's general store, attended church services, went target shooting with a seven-year-old, square-danced with the locals, sampled the local moonshine. In \u003cem\u003eThe Quiet Zone, \u003c\/em\u003ehe introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. There is a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; \"electrosensitives\" who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff's department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow. Amongst them all are the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Quiet Zone\u003c\/em\u003e is a remarkable work of investigative journalism--at once a stirring ode to place, a tautly wound tale of mystery, and a clarion call to reexamine the role technology plays in our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0062945505\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062945501\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Kurczy, Stephen\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Dey Street Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dey Street Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Aug 2022)","offer_id":45937289953477,"sku":"9780062945501","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780062945501.jpg?v=1772856858"},{"product_id":"the-crazies-the-cattleman-the-wind-prospector-and-a-war-out-west-1","title":"The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eYellowstone\u003c\/i\u003e meets \u003ci\u003eMatlock\u003c\/i\u003e\" (Tom Clavin) in this dazzling tale of land lust and the American West, chronicling the rise and fall of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMost locals in Big Timber, Montana, learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like his pioneer ancestors who staked their claims in the Treasure State, he believed in his right to make a living off the land--and its most precious resource, million-dollar wind. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTrouble was, Jarrett's neighbors were some of the wealthiest and most influential men in America, trophy ranchers who'd come west to enjoy magnificent mountain views, not stare at five-hundred-foot wind turbines. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSo began an epic showdown that would pull in an ever-widening cast of characters, including a Texas oil and gas tycoon, a roguish wind prospector, a Crow activist fighting for his tribe's rights to the mountains they hold sacred, and an Olympic athlete-turned-attorney whose path to redemption would lead to Jarrett's wind farm. A wildly entertaining yarn, the brawl over Crazy Mountain Wind would become a fight over the values that define us as Americans, even as the most coveted rangeland in the West was threatened by forces more powerful than anything one man could muster: record drought, raging wildfires, dwindling snowpack. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An epic tale of greed and resilience,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Crazies\u003c\/i\u003e \"has the power to leave you feeling walloped, whip-sawed, and wildly invigorated, all within the same breath\" (Kevin Fedarko, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eA Walk in the Park\u003c\/i\u003e). It's an exquisitely reported, ruggedly beautiful western for a warming planet--and a bighearted inquiry into how you can love a place so much you risk destroying it.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1982158182\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781982158187\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gamerman, Amy\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46080411173061,"sku":"9781982158187","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781982158187.jpg?v=1776036921"},{"product_id":"the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state-1","title":"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State","description":"The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State: in the Light of the Researches of Lewis H. Morgan is an 1884 historical materialist treatise by Friedrich Engels. It is partially based on notes by Karl Marx to Lewis H. Morgan's book Ancient Society from 1877. The book is an early anthropological work and is regarded as one of the first major works on family economics.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1541015363\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781541015364\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Untermann, Ernest, Engels, Frederick\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Createspace Independent Publishing Platform","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Dec 2016)","offer_id":46080515932357,"sku":"9781541015364","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781541015364.jpg?v=1776038018"},{"product_id":"mailman-my-wild-ride-delivering-the-mail-in-appalachia-and-finally-finding-home","title":"Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exuberant, hilarious, and profound memoir\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e 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 about a country he loves but had lost touch with.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSteve Grant was laid off in March of 2020. He was fifty and had cancer, so he needed health insurance, fast. Which is how he found himself a rural letter carrier in Appalachia, back in his old hometown. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Suddenly, he was the guy with the goods, delivering dog food and respirators and lube and heirloom tomato seeds and \u003ci\u003eLord of the Rings\u003c\/i\u003e replica swords. He transported chicken feed to grandmothers living alone in the mountains and forded a creek with a refrigerator on his back. But while he carried the mail, he also carried a whole lot more than just the mail, including a family legacy of rage and the anxiety of having lost his identity along with his corporate job. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e And yet, slowly, surrounded by a ragtag but devoted band of letter carriers, working this different kind of job, Grant found himself becoming a different kind of person. He became a lifeline for lonely people, providing fleeting moments of human contact and the assurance that our government still cares. He embraced the thrill of tackling new challenges, the pride of contributing to something greater than himself, the joy of camaraderie, and the purpose found in working hard for his family and doing a small, good thing for his community. He even kindled a newfound faith. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A brash and loving portrait of an all-American institution, \u003ci\u003eMailman\u003c\/i\u003e offers a deeply felt portrait of both rural America and the dedicated (and eccentric) letter carriers who keep our lives running smoothly day to day. One hell of a raconteur, Steve Grant has written an irreverent, heartfelt, and often hilarious tribute to the simple heroism of daily service, the dignity and struggle of blue-collar work, the challenge and pleasure of coming home again after twenty-five years away, and the delight of going the extra mile for your neighbors, every day.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1668018047\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781668018040\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Grant, Stephen Starring\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jul 2025)","offer_id":46080615973061,"sku":"9781668018040","price":28.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover - Large Print (Dec 2025)","offer_id":46080616005829,"sku":"9781420530926","price":35.14,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781668018040.jpg?v=1776039073"},{"product_id":"white-rural-rage-the-threat-to-american-democracy","title":"White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER - A searing portrait and damning takedown of America's proudest citizens--who are also the least likely to defend its core principles\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"This is an important book that ought to be read by anyone who wants to understand politics in the perilous Age of Trump.\"--David Corn, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Psychosis\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhite rural voters hold the greatest electoral sway of any demographic group in the United States, yet rural communities suffer from poor healthcare access, failing infrastructure, and severe manufacturing and farming job losses. Rural voters believe our nation has betrayed them, and to some degree, they're right. In \u003ci\u003eWhite Rural Rage, \u003c\/i\u003e Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political power and why, as a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions. Their rage--stoked daily by Republican politicians and the conservative media--now poses an existential threat to the United States. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSchaller and Waldman show how vulnerable U.S. democracy has become to rural Whites who, despite legitimate grievances, are increasingly inclined to hold racist and xenophobic beliefs, to believe in conspiracy theories, to accept violence as a legitimate course of political action, and to exhibit antidemocratic tendencies. Rural White Americans' attitude might best be described as \"I love \u003ci\u003emy\u003c\/i\u003e country, but not \u003ci\u003eour\u003c\/i\u003e country,\" Schaller and Waldman argue. This phenomenon is the patriot paradox of rural America: The citizens who take such pride in their patriotism are also the least likely to defend core American principles. And by stoking rural Whites' anger rather than addressing the hard problems they face, conservative politicians and talking heads create a feedback loop of resentments that are undermining American democracy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSchaller and Waldman provocatively critique both the structures that permit rural Whites' disproportionate influence over American governance and the prospects for creating a pluralist, inclusive democracy that delivers policy solutions that benefit rural communities. They conclude with a political reimagining that offers a better future for both rural people and the rest of America.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0593729161\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780593729168\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Schaller, Tom, Waldman, Paul\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Random House Trade","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (May 2025)","offer_id":46080688324805,"sku":"9780593729168","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780593729168.jpg?v=1776039421"},{"product_id":"rural-versus-urban-the-growing-divide-that-threatens-democracy","title":"Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow the urban-rural divide drives partisan polarization \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhy have Americans living in different places come to experience politics as a battle between \"us\" and \"them\"? In \u003ci\u003eRural Versus Urban\u003c\/i\u003e, Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown argue that political polarization is not just about red states and blue states, or coastal elites who alienate those in fly-over country. Instead, polarization permeates every region and every state--and has become organized through a pernicious rural-urban division. Mettler and Brown explain the evolution of this gulf across five decades, charting political trends in both places. Drawing on data on individuals, communities, and members of Congress, as well as interviews with local party leaders and former elected officials, they show how the divide emerged and why it poses a threat to democracy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUntil about thirty years ago, both political parties attracted support from rural and urban voters. But after place-based inequality grew due to deregulation and trade liberalization, white rural dwellers began to view urban people and Democrats as affluent elites out of touch with their needs. Politically active evangelical churches, antiabortion organizations, and gun groups helped deepen the divide, encouraging many of these rural residents to become staunch supporters of the GOP. Now, regional one-party rule in rural America gives Republicans a systematic edge for gaining control of crucial political institutions, including the Senate, House of Representatives, the Presidency, and even the Supreme Court. This is helping enable an extremist political party and pushing democracy to the brink. Mettler and Brown argue that the divide can be repaired--but only if the Democrats build their own robust local organizations and offer citizens a meaningful choice.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0691264384\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780691264387\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Mettler, Suzanne, Brown, Trevor E.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Sep 2025)","offer_id":46080879984837,"sku":"9780691264387","price":28.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780691264387.jpg?v=1776041396"},{"product_id":"heartland-a-memoir-of-working-hard-and-being-broke-in-the-richest-country-on-earth","title":"Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth","description":"\u003cb\u003e*Finalist for the National Book Award*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e*Finalist for the Kirkus Prize*\u003cbr\u003e *Instant \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eBestseller*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e *\u003cb\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year by NPR, \u003ci\u003e New York Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBuzzFeed\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e*\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country and \"a deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight\".*\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDuring Sarah's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeautifully written, in a distinctive voice, \u003ci\u003eHeartland\u003c\/i\u003e combines personal narrative with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, challenging\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ethe myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHeartland\u003c\/i\u003e is one of a growing number of important works--including Matthew Desmond's \u003ci\u003eEvicted\u003c\/i\u003e and Amy Goldstein's \u003ci\u003eJanesville\u003c\/i\u003e--that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: America's postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the 'American dream' was used to subjugate the poor. It's a powerful mantra\" *(\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1501133101\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781501133107\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Smarsh, Sarah\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Sep 2019)","offer_id":46081373438149,"sku":"9781501133107","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781501133107.jpg?v=1776045271"},{"product_id":"appalachian-reckoning-a-region-responds-to-hillbilly-elegy","title":"Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2020 American Book Award winner, Walter \u0026amp; Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award \u003cbr\u003e 2019 Weatherford Award winner, nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie in the works, and the rise of its author as a media personality, J. D. Vance's \u003ci\u003eHillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis\u003c\/i\u003e has defined Appalachia for much of the nation. What about\u003ci\u003e Hillbilly Elegy\u003c\/i\u003e accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region's future? \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAppalachian Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow \u003ci\u003eHillbilly Elegy\u003c\/i\u003e has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond\u003ci\u003e Hillbilly Elegy\u003c\/i\u003e to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography. The essays and creative work collected in \u003ci\u003eAppalachian Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e provide a deeply personal portrait of a place that is at once culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. Complicating simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, \u003ci\u003eAppalachian Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e makes clear Appalachia's intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1946684791\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781946684790\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Harkins, Anthony, McCarroll, Meredith\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: West Virginia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"West Virginia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Feb 2019)","offer_id":46081386610885,"sku":"9781946684790","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781946684790.jpg?v=1776045360"},{"product_id":"downeast-five-maine-girls-and-the-unseen-story-of-rural-america","title":"Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eDowneast\u003c\/i\u003e, Gigi Georges follows five girls as they come of age in one of the most challenging and geographically isolated regions on the Eastern seaboard. Their stories reveal surprising truths about rural America and offer hope for its future. \"It's almost impossible not to care about these fierce young women and cheer for their hard-won successes\" (\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e) in this \"heartfelt portrait\" and \"worthy tribute\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNestled in Maine's far northeast corner, Washington County sits an hour's drive from the heart of famed and bustling Acadia National Park. Yet it's a world away. For Willow, Vivian, Mckenna, Audrey, and Josie--five teenage girls caught between tradition and transformation in this remote region--it is home. This collection of small town stories follows their journeys of heartbreak and hope in uncertain times, creating a nuanced and unique portrait of rural America with women at its center.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWillow lives in the shadow of an abusive, drug-addicted father and searches for stability through photography and love. Vivian, a gifted writer, feels stifled by her church and town, and struggles to break free without severing family ties. Mckenna is a softball pitching phenom whose passion is the lobster-fishing she learned at her father's knee. Audrey is a beloved high school basketball star who earns a coveted college scholarship but questions her chosen path. Josie, a Yale-bound valedictorian, is determined to take the world by storm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll five girls know the pain and joy of life in a region whose rugged beauty and stoicism mask dwindling populations, vanishing job opportunities, and pervasive opioid addiction. As the girls reach adulthood, they discover that despite significant challenges, there is much to celebrate in \"the valley of the overlooked.\" Their stories remind us of the value of timeless ideals: strength of family and community, reverence for nature's rule, dignity in cracked hands and muddied shoes, and the enduring power of home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRevealed through the eyes of Willow, Vivian, Mckenna, Audrey, and Josie, \u003ci\u003eDowneast\u003c\/i\u003e is based on four years of intimate reporting. The result is a beautifully rendered, emotionally startling, and vital book that delivers compelling social commentary. \u003ci\u003eDowneast\u003c\/i\u003e will break readers' hearts yet offer them hope, providing answers to what the future may hold for rural America.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis powerful work of narrative nonfiction is a must-read for anyone interested in the challenges and triumphs of modern rural life, exploring themes of: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eComing of Age in Rural America: \u003c\/b\u003e Follow five young women--Willow, Vivian, Mckenna, Audrey, and Josie--as they navigate the path to adulthood, caught between cherished traditions and the need for transformation.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIntimate Journalistic Reporting: \u003c\/b\u003e Based on four years of immersive reporting, this book offers a beautifully rendered and emotionally startling portrait of a region often overlooked.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWomen at the Center: \u003c\/b\u003e Discover a nuanced and unique perspective on American life, focusing on the journeys of heartbreak and hope experienced by the girls and women of Washington County.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Enduring Power of Home: \u003c\/b\u003e Explore timeless ideals like the strength of family, the dignity of hard work, and deep reverence for nature in a community facing dwindling populations and vanishing job opportunities.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0062984446\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780062984449\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Georges, Gigi\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Harper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jun 2022)","offer_id":46291822215365,"sku":"9780062984449","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780062984449.jpg?v=1780113135"},{"product_id":"africulture-how-the-principles-practices-plants-and-people-of-african-descent-have-shaped-american-agriculture","title":"Africulture: How the Principles, Practices, Plants, and People of African Descent Have Shaped American Agriculture","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAfriculture\u003c\/i\u003e is a gift and inspiration.\"--Michael W. Twitty, author of the James Beard Foundation Award-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Cooking Gene\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA bold, timely history illuminating the essential contributions to U.S. agriculture arising from the expertise and innovations of Black men and women. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eAfriculture\u003c\/i\u003e, fifth-generation family farmer Michael Carter, Jr. has blended an eclectic brew of history, culture, African-centered perspectives, and African American farm realities. Throughout, he includes inspiring stories of innovators as well as sobering facts tracking the severe decline in the number of Black farmers in the United States over the last century. Descriptions of tropical crops that Carter grows, from jute to Nigerian spinach, enliven the text, as do anecdotes from his compelling family history and profiles of contemporary Black farmers and activists. Drawing on the lifecycle of a plant as a metaphor for both individual growth and the larger story of African American farming, Carter evokes the relationship between soil health (metaphorically, society and community) and plant health (i.e., the ability of Black farmers and families to thrive). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAfriculture\u003c\/i\u003e also includes Carter's heartfelt reflections on the cycles of progress and backsliding--what he calls \"blacklash\"--that are an inescapable part of the history of Black people in the United States, in agriculture and beyond. In the present moment, when the civil rights gains and progress toward economic parity for Black Americans of the past fifty years may be slipping away, Carter offers the possibility of a better future through several foundational principles of Africulture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDestined to surprise, challenge, and enrich, \u003ci\u003eAfriculture\u003c\/i\u003e lays bare the undeniable revelation that without African expertise and innovation, American agriculture--and America itself--would not exist. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"The ancestors are undoubtedly shaking their tambourines in celebration of \u003ci\u003eAfriculture\u003c\/i\u003e...[it] provides a blueprint for the blossoming of an agriculture rooted in cultural memory, ecological care, and mutual thriving.\"--Leah Penniman, cofounder, Soul Fire Farm; author of \u003ci\u003eFarming While Black\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 164502301X\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781645023012\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Carter, Michael, Jr., Twitty, Michael W.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Chelsea Green Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (May 2026)","offer_id":46291848855749,"sku":"9781645023012","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781645023012.jpg?v=1780113175"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/social-science-sociology-rural.oembed","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}