What a great (reading) weekend.

I had a great weekend.  I had one of those great weekends where everything I read seemed to connect to everything else, and I learned new things about places where I've never been, which always feels (to me), physically, like never-before fired synpapses in my brain are activated for the first time.

I LOVE that. 

So how did it all connect?  A week ago I finished Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader for a Day (more on that later), which is a fantastic book about how Venkatesh, while in grad school at Chicago, literally walked into the projects to ask the residents questions about living in urban poverty.  That book was a glimpse into a whole other world, and was in the back of my mind this weekend when I read Caught In the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism, by Richard Longworth.

Caught in the Middle is a fascinating book,* if sad, about the changing economics and population patterns of the Midwest, from Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to the northern halves of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio (including a fair bit about cities like Chicago and Detroit).  Everyone who lives in the Midwest should read it, immediately.  I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on the collective character of Midwesterners:

"In other words, Midwesterners are tolerant, narrow-minded, cultured, crass, sophisticated, and naive in pretty much the same measure as other Americans.  What makes them unique, though, is their isolation, especially from each other.  Rural villages, immigrant towns, factory cities, all battle the problems of globalization in isolation from each other, unaware that other people in neighboring states are fighting the same battle.  By nature, Midwesterners can be aloof and uncooperative.  That nature is hurting them now." (p. 23.)

I followed that up by starting Made In Detroit, a memoir by Paul Clemens, a white man who grew up in Detroit (the city proper, not the suburbs).  Further bulletins ahead on that book, but it also nicely dovetailed with the other things I was reading (and is fantastic in its own right).

Unfortunately, now it's Monday.  Time to stop reading for a moment and try to make some money in the global economy coming to the Midwest.

*In it, I also learned that Dayton, Ohio, has more patents per capita than any other American city.  "The cash register was invented here and so were microfiche and the bar code...People in Dayton invented the parking meter, the movie projector, the parachute, the gas mask, and the pop-top can.  The stepladder was born in Dayton."  (p. 28.)  See?  Interesting.

Comments

[Tripp]

Cool! I love globalization books, and that one looks like it provides something new. And the cover is great.

[CitizenReader]

Tripp,
It's definitely a different take on a big subject--my favorite bits were when he examined the small towns that couldn't decide if they were happy about immigrants keeping their cities alive or if they were too busy disliking the immigrants. Ah, the old human condition. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. A good companion read to this one might also be Louis Uchitelle's The Disposable American, which (IMHO) was the superior book, but this one is still a great read. And you're right--very arresting cover as well.

[Venta]

As a born and bred Midwesterner now living in the Pacific Northwest I was especially pleased to see this quote from the book. It explains a lot - probably to my boss, too.

"By nature, Midwesterners can be aloof and uncooperative."

I look forward to reading this book.

To your comment to Tripp, CitizenReader, in Eastern Washington, where immigrants pick the produce, there isn't much debate about whether the towns like the immigrants. They don't.

[CitizenReader]

Venta,
You'll have to let me know what you think of it!
I must admit I enjoyed the "aloof and uncooperative" bit myself. Must be why I can't get myself to leave the Midwest. Aloof and uncooperative I understand.
And, yeah, I don't think there was much debate in the towns this author explored, either. It just seems so weird, in a nation of people who themselves have immigrant ancestors...

[The Laundress]

Okay, this review excites me. Want to get the book NOW. This one plus Venkatesh (your next up review).

Sigh. Will queue up at the library.

Me? Just started Eric Schlosser's (he of "Fast Food Nation" fame) book -- Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, Cheap Labor in the American Black Market")

Hardly into chapter one, but so far it is good. c2004. Did you review this one already?

Thanks ( I think) for too many good reads,
tl

[CitizenReader]

Laundress!
Yes, I want to talk with you after you read this one. I think you will find it very, very interesting. Even more so than the Venkatesh.

I never read Reefer Madness; for some reason, the only word I can come up with when I think about Eric Schlosser is "shrill." I wasn't a big fan of "Fast Food Nation," but perhaps I need to try the Reefer instead?

Woops, that came out wrong. Don't tell Mom CitizenReader.

[Venta Silins]

So much to say about this book. One of the most provoking paragraphs is on page 255:

"Nothing is sadder than workers who did everything right, who had every reason to expect a job for life, who worked hard and honestly, and in midlife, find themselves on the shelf. If they can be retrained, they certainly should be. But many can't. The government owes them enough money to stay alive, but no more than that. Any focus for the future, in money or other resources, must be on their children."

[CitizenReader]

Venta,
Are you reading it right now? Isn't it a shocker? I enjoyed the paragraph you reference too (Okay, "enjoyed" isn't quite the right word). I have a real appreciation for the absolute soul crusher it is to work hard, do everything right, and still get nothing out of it--growing up on the farm, all it took was one stupid weather event to fuck you for the whole year. My father, with his weird mix of optimism, gambling, and desire to see things grow next year, could stand that. I couldn't. I find the whole thought heartbreaking.

Did you ever read Louise Uchitelle's "The Disposable American"? A lot like this book, only more tied to the jobs and the corporate culture for the last twenty years. Also interesting.

Thanks for commenting--I look forward to anything else you want to say on this book--(or really anything!)