—How the poorest places in the U.S.–rural communities–all share a history of resource extraction and human exploitation—
The Non-fiction Feature
The Injustice of Place
Author: Kathryn Edin, Luke Shaefer, Timothy Nelson
Publisher: Mariner Books
Pages: 360 | 2024
With important caveats about the most advantaged places in mind, the key lesson we have taken from our exploration of those places is that people seem to thrive–maybe not in wealth but in health and life chances–when inequality is low; when landownership is widespread; when social connection is high; when corruption of the kind seen in central Appalachia is virtually unknown; and when violence is rare.
The social leveling that is characteristic of communities in the upper Midwest….It is the engine that drives the social and economic processes from which its citizens derive benefits.
The Poetry Spot
Affrilachia
Frank X. Walker
….and sand hearts
with all that we are
trying to counter
not erase
years of neglect
generations of not knowing
not believing the difference
between
violins
and violen…ce
The Product Spot
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan think tank that does things like demographic research, surveys, media analysis, and other social science research.