Strangers in Their Own Land ─ Anger and Mourning on the American Right

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into the heart of the bayou of Lake Charles, Louisiana, a stronghold of the conservative Right.

Determined to form friendships with people who oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild unexpectedly finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets—among them a Tea Party supporter whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole created by a disaster at a gas drilling facility, and a pastor’s wife who calls Rush Limbaugh my brave heart”—people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land dismisses the commonplace liberal idea that these voters are being duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by the disappearance of jobs, stagnating wages, an elusive American dream—and political choices no less rational than those of Blue State progressives.

Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in red” America. Along the way she finds answers to some of the crucial drivers of American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from liberal” government intervention abhor the very idea?