The Lies of the Land

A "piercing, unsentimental" (New Yorker) history that boldly challenges the idea of a rural American crisis.   It seems everyone has an opinion about rural America. Is it gripped in a tragic decli ...

A "piercing, unsentimental" (New Yorker) history that boldly challenges the idea of a rural American crisis.   It seems everyone has an opinion about rural America. Is it gripped in a tragic decline? Or is it on the cusp of a glorious revival? Is it the key to understanding America today? Steven Conn argues that we’re missing the real question: Is rural America even a thing? No, says Conn, who believes we see only what we want to see in the lands beyond the suburbs—fantasies about moral (or backward) communities, simpler (or repressive) living, and what it means to be authentically (or wronghe