LEADER 02425cam 2200193 a 4500
001 989297
005 20191202092822.0
008 191202s2019 nyu g 000 0aeng d
010 $a2017301189
020 $a9781501133107 (pbk.) :$cNT$595
040 $aTWTNM$beng$dTWTNM
050 00$aHD8073.S637$bA3 2018
082 04$a978.1033$222
100 1 $aSmarsh, Sarah,$eauthor.
245 10$aHeartland :$ba memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country on Earth /$cSarah Smarsh.
250 $aFirst Scribner hardcover edition ; First Scribner trade paperback edition.
260 $aNew York :$bScribner,$c2019.
300 $axv, 290 p. ;$c22 cm.
500 $aPaperback edition includes a reading group guide with discussion questions.
505 0 $aDear August -- A penny in a purse -- The body of a poor girl -- A stretch of gravel with wheat on either side -- The shame a country could assign -- A house that needs shingles -- A working-class woman -- The place I was from.
520 $aDuring Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to examine the class divide in our country and the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. Her personal history affirms the corrosive impact intergenerational poverty can have on individuals, families, and communities, and she explores this idea as lived experience, metaphor, and level of consciousness. Born a fifth-generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen motherson her maternal side, Smarsh grew up in a family of laborers trapped in a cycle of poverty. Whether working the wheat harvest, helping on her dad's construction sites, or visiting her grandma's courthouse job, she learned about hard work. She also absorbed painful lessons about economic inequality. Through her experience growing up as the child of a dissatisfied teenage mother--and being raised predominantly by her grandmother on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita--she gives us a unique, essential look into the lives of poor and working-class Americans living in the middle of our country. Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is an uncompromising look at class, identity, and the particular perils of having less in a country known for its excess. --Dust jacket.
600 10$aSmarsh, Sarah.
650 0$aPoor$zKansas$vBiography.
650 0$aWorking poor$zKansas$vBiography.
650 0$aFarmers$zKansas$vBiography.
650 0$aFarmers$zKansas$xEconomic conditions.
650 0$aFarm life$zKansas.
651 0$aKansas$vBiography.