‘Beyond the Myth of Rural America:’ Historian Steven Conn’s new book ‘The Lies of the Land’ reviewed by The New Yorker
‘Although we normally think of suburbs as outgrowths of cities, Conn notes that they sit on formerly rural land and are often filled with formerly rural people. They are as much ‘post-rural’ as ‘sub-urban,’ and their politics show it.’
‘Beyond the Myth of Rural America:’ Historian Steven Conn’s new book ‘The Lies of the Land’ reviewed by The New Yorker
A new book published this month by author Steven Conn, W. E. Smith Professor of History, is featured in a book review by The New Yorker magazine.
“The Lies of the Land” (University of Chicago Press), described as “piercing and unsentimental,” argues that the rural United States is, in fact, highly artificial. “Its inhabitants are as much creatures of state power and industrial capitalism as their city-dwelling counterparts. But we rarely acknowledge this, Conn writes, because many of us—urban and rural, on the left and the right—’don’t quite want it to be true.’”
“If small, rugged farms have not filled the countryside, what has? This is Conn’s second great theme. For the past century, rural spaces have been preferred destinations for military bases, discount retail chains, extractive industries, manufacturing plants, and real-estate developments.”
Read the article “Beyond the Myth of Rural America” in The New Yorker (Oct. 16).
