The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Small-Town America

How a fraying social fabric is fueling the outrage of rural Americans What is fueling rural Americas outrage toward the federal government? Why did rural Americans vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump? And is there a more nuanced explanation for the growing rural-urban divide? Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Robert Wuthnow brings us into Americas small towns, farms, and rural communities to paint a rich portrait of the moral orderthe interactions, loyalties, obligations, and identitiesunderpinning this critical segment of the nation. Wuthnow demonstrates that to truly understand rural Americans anger, their culture must be explored more fully, and he shows that rural Americas fury stems less from economic concerns than from the perception that Washington is distant from and yet threatening to the social fabric of small towns. Moving beyond simplistic depictions of Americas heartland, The Left Behind offers a clearer picture of how this important population will influence the nations political future.