Books about Middle America - Nonfiction

1.
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right 4.12 avg rating — 17,562 ratings
2.
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis 3.85 avg rating — 488,811 ratings
3.
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis 4.04 avg rating — 4,288 ratings
4.
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland 4.11 avg rating — 6,867 ratings
5.
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide 3.99 avg rating — 4,136 ratings
6.
Janesville: An American Story
Janesville: An American Story 4.09 avg rating — 7,525 ratings
7.
Those Who Work, Those Who Don't: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America
Those Who Work, Those Who Don't: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America 4.06 avg rating — 157 ratings
8.
The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality
The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality 3.71 avg rating — 147 ratings
9.
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth 3.76 avg rating — 16,288 ratings
10.
Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads
Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads 3.78 avg rating — 5,796 ratings
11.
The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America
The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America 3.57 avg rating — 620 ratings
12.
God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America
God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America
by: Lyz Lenz
3.84 avg rating — 1,422 ratings
13.
Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America
Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America 3.68 avg rating — 439 ratings
13.
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow 4.16 avg rating — 4,105 ratings
15.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City 4.47 avg rating — 109,940 ratings
16.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America 4.44 avg rating — 44,181 ratings
16.
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America 3.76 avg rating — 24,555 ratings
16.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community 3.85 avg rating — 8,655 ratings
16.
Dispossessed: How Predatory Bureaucracy Foreclosed on the American Middle Class
Dispossessed: How Predatory Bureaucracy Foreclosed on the American Middle Class 3.73 avg rating — 22 ratings
16.
Rural Poverty in the United States
Rural Poverty in the United States 4.29 avg rating — 17 ratings
16.
My First Thirty Years
My First Thirty Years 3.67 avg rating — 392 ratings
22.
White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America
White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America 3.88 avg rating — 1,956 ratings
22.
Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America
Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America 4.13 avg rating — 485 ratings
22.
Polka Heartland: Why the Midwest Loves to Polka
Polka Heartland: Why the Midwest Loves to Polka 4.04 avg rating — 24 ratings
25.
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War 3.85 avg rating — 4,167 ratings
25.
Some Like It Cold: Surfing the Malibu of the Midwest
Some Like It Cold: Surfing the Malibu of the Midwest really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 18 ratings
25.
Worlds Apart: Poverty and Politics in Rural America
Worlds Apart: Poverty and Politics in Rural America 3.89 avg rating — 175 ratings
25.
We Just Keep Running the Line: Black Southern Women and the Poultry Processing Industry
We Just Keep Running the Line: Black Southern Women and the Poultry Processing Industry really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
29.
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land 3.79 avg rating — 16,446 ratings
29.
The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
by: Amy Chua
3.62 avg rating — 2,274 ratings
29.
Hidden Thunder: Rock Art of the Upper Midwest
Hidden Thunder: Rock Art of the Upper Midwest 3.95 avg rating — 19 ratings
29.
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
by: Beth Macy
4.07 avg rating — 44,187 ratings
33.
So Ole Says to Lena: Folk Humor of the Upper Midwest
So Ole Says to Lena: Folk Humor of the Upper Midwest 3.80 avg rating — 10 ratings
34.
Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse
Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse 3.93 avg rating — 1,157 ratings
34.
Blue Highways
Blue Highways 4.03 avg rating — 24,992 ratings
34.
Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking
Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings
34.
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic 4.23 avg rating — 31,636 ratings
38.
Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities
Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities 3.71 avg rating — 393 ratings
38.
The Small-Town Midwest: Resilience and Hope in the Twenty-First Century
The Small-Town Midwest: Resilience and Hope in the Twenty-First Century 3.71 avg rating — 17 ratings
38.
The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States 4.39 avg rating — 1,915 ratings
41.
The Heartland: An American History
The Heartland: An American History 3.12 avg rating — 297 ratings
41.
The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization
The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization 3.74 avg rating — 236 ratings
41.
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,010 ratings
41.
The Unbanking Of America: How the New Middle Class Survives
The Unbanking Of America: How the New Middle Class Survives 3.97 avg rating — 939 ratings
41.
The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution
The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution 4.08 avg rating — 375 ratings
46.
White Trash: Race and Class in America
White Trash: Race and Class in America
by: Matt Wray
3.66 avg rating — 132 ratings
46.
American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability
American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
46.
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood 4.09 avg rating — 710,356 ratings
49.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI 4.14 avg rating — 425,977 ratings
50.
Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia
Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia 3.84 avg rating — 698 ratings
50.
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century 4.03 avg rating — 49,873 ratings
50.
The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma
The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma 3.79 avg rating — 1,970 ratings
53.
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us 3.91 avg rating — 1,053 ratings
53.
The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation
The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation 3.86 avg rating — 76 ratings
55.
What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia
What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia 4.01 avg rating — 4,722 ratings
55.
The Last Harvest: Truck Farmers in the Deep South
The Last Harvest: Truck Farmers in the Deep South 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings
55.
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl 4.06 avg rating — 60,120 ratings
58.
Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974
Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974 4.06 avg rating — 1,237 ratings
58.
Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities
Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities 4.14 avg rating — 196 ratings
60.
The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West
The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,533 ratings
61.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race 4.38 avg rating — 99,861 ratings
61.
Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West
Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West 4.13 avg rating — 87 ratings
63.
How We Fight White Supremacy
How We Fight White Supremacy 4.24 avg rating — 570 ratings
63.
Bad Land: An American Romance
Bad Land: An American Romance 3.95 avg rating — 1,811 ratings
63.
Meander Belt: Family, Loss, and Coming of Age in the Working-Class South
Meander Belt: Family, Loss, and Coming of Age in the Working-Class South 4.38 avg rating — 37 ratings
66.
What′s the Matter with White People? Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was
What′s the Matter with White People? Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was 3.73 avg rating — 392 ratings
66.
Vanishing America: In Pursuit of Our Elusive Landscapes
Vanishing America: In Pursuit of Our Elusive Landscapes 3.62 avg rating — 42 ratings
66.
Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town
Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town 3.69 avg rating — 6,840 ratings
69.
White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction
White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction 4.02 avg rating — 53 ratings
69.
On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters
On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters 3.82 avg rating — 153 ratings
71.
White Trash Cooking
White Trash Cooking really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 548 ratings
71.
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause 4.41 avg rating — 5,503 ratings
73.
Red Clay, Pink Cadillacs and White Gold: The Kaolin Chalk Wars
Red Clay, Pink Cadillacs and White Gold: The Kaolin Chalk Wars 4.43 avg rating — 14 ratings
73.
I Am Not a Tractor!: How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won
I Am Not a Tractor!: How Florida Farmworkers Took On the Fast Food Giants and Won 4.32 avg rating — 44 ratings
75.
A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South
A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South 3.90 avg rating — 84 ratings
75.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men 3.97 avg rating — 3,971 ratings
77.
There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975
There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975 3.97 avg rating — 256 ratings
77.
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South—A James Beard Award Winner
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South—A James Beard Award Winner 3.87 avg rating — 8,046 ratings
79.
Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South
Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South 3.90 avg rating — 468 ratings
79.
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War 4.10 avg rating — 24,892 ratings
81.
Ben Tillman & the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies)
Ben Tillman & the Reconstruction of White Supremacy (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) 3.85 avg rating — 92 ratings
82.
White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism
White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism 4.27 avg rating — 1,015 ratings
83.
Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940
Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 3.98 avg rating — 254 ratings
84.
Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present
Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present 4.26 avg rating — 631 ratings
85.
Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History Of Black Organizing And White Violence In Florida From Reconstruction To The Bloody Election Of 1920 (Volume 16)
Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History Of Black Organizing And White Violence In Florida From Reconstruction To The Bloody Election Of 1920 (Volume 16) 4.16 avg rating — 69 ratings
86.
Southern Folk, Plain & Fancy: Native White Social Types
Southern Folk, Plain & Fancy: Native White Social Types 4.12 avg rating — 16 ratings
87.
White People, Indians, and Highlanders: Tribal People and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America
White People, Indians, and Highlanders: Tribal People and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America 3.97 avg rating — 68 ratings
88.
The History of White People
The History of White People 4.07 avg rating — 3,174 ratings
89.
The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats
The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats
by: Jim Goad
3.80 avg rating — 1,339 ratings
90.
Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads and the Rise of a New White Culture
Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads and the Rise of a New White Culture 3.67 avg rating — 120 ratings
91.
Habits of Industry: White Culture and the Transformation of the Carolina Piedmont (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies)
Habits of Industry: White Culture and the Transformation of the Carolina Piedmont (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) 3.91 avg rating — 11 ratings
92.
Blacks, Whites, and Blues
Blacks, Whites, and Blues 3.07 avg rating — 15 ratings
93.
Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine
Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine 3.55 avg rating — 359 ratings
94.
God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi
God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi 3.63 avg rating — 3,878 ratings
95.
True South: Travels Through a Land of White Columns, Black-Eyed Peas & Redneck Bars
True South: Travels Through a Land of White Columns, Black-Eyed Peas & Redneck Bars 3.57 avg rating — 7 ratings
96.
Struggle for the Soul of the Postwar South: White Evangelical Protestants and Operation Dixie
Struggle for the Soul of the Postwar South: White Evangelical Protestants and Operation Dixie 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings
97.
The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement
The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement 4.14 avg rating — 149 ratings
98.
Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture
Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture 4.03 avg rating — 34 ratings
99.
America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America
America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America 4.07 avg rating — 1,728 ratings
100.
The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West
The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West 3.84 avg rating — 91 ratings
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