Rural America
Credit: nreca
Robert Wuthnow, a sociologist at Princeton University, spent eight years interviewing Americans in small towns across the country. He had one goal: to understand why rural America is so angry with Washington.
Wuthnow’s work resulted in a new book, The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America. He argues that rural Americans are less concerned about economic issues and more concerned about Washington threatening the social fabric of small towns and causing a “moral decline” in the country as a whole. The problem, though, is that it’s never quite clear what that means or how Washington is responsible for it.
So I decided to speak with Wuthnow about what he learned and whether fears about America’s “moral decline” are really just a cover for much deeper fears about race and demographic changes.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
When did you conduct the interviews for this book? And where?
Robert Wuthnow
The research was done between 2006 and 2014, and we talked to people in […]
The interviewer, and I suspect the researcher, mocks the rural residents in this country for their views, without attempting to truly understand the valid experience which underlies this perspective. A sad excuse for an interview. I hope the actual text of the book is more well rounded.
Albus Eddie. I’m getting the impression that perhaps you have pretty good knowledge of the psyche of rural Americans. Many of us will not have time to read the whole book, so could you give us an idea of where the interviewer may have gone wrong?