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With a New Afterword by the Author
The New York Times bestseller, praised as "hilariously funny . . . the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political interests" (Molly Ivins)
Hailed as "dazzlingly insightful and wonderfully sardonic" (Chicago Tribune), "very funny and very painful" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "in a different league from most political books" (The New York Observer), What's the Matter with Kansas? unravels the great political mystery of our day: Why do so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests? With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank answers the riddle by examining his home state, Kansas-a place once famous for its radicalism that now ranks among the nation's most eager participants in the culture wars. Charting what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"-the popular revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment-Frank reveals how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans.
A brilliant analysis-and funny to boot-What's the Matter with Kansas? is a vivid portrait of an upside-down world where blue-collar patriots recite the Pledge while they strangle their life chances; where small farmers cast their votes for a Wall Street order that will eventually push them off their land; and where a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs has managed to convince the country that it speaks on behalf of the People.
- Sales Rank: #28176 in Books
- Brand: Frank, Thomas
- Published on: 2005-05-01
- Released on: 2005-04-14
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.18" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .65 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 322 pages
- Conservative
- Heart of America
- Mid West
- Heartland
- Politics
Amazon.com Review
The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically. To much of America, Kansas is an abstract, "where Dorothy wants to return. Where Superman grew up." But Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas. --John Moe
From The New Yorker
Kansas, once home to farmers who marched against "money power," is now solidly Republican. In Frank's scathing and high-spirited polemic, this fact is not just "the mystery of Kansas" but "the mystery of America." Dismissing much of the received punditry about the red-blue divide, Frank argues that the problem is the "systematic erasure of the economic" from discussions of class and its replacement with a notion of "authenticity," whereby "there is no bad economic turn a conservative cannot do unto his buddy in the working class, as long as cultural solidarity has been cemented over a beer." The leaders of this backlash, by focussing on cultural issues in which victory is probably impossible (abortion, "filth" on TV), feed their base's sense of grievance, abetted, Frank believes, by a "criminally stupid" Democratic strategy of triangulation. Liberals do not need to know more about nascar; they need to talk more about money and class.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker
Review
“The best political book of the year.” ―Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
“Frank is a formidable controversialist-imagine Michael Moore with a trained brain and an intellectual conscience.” ―George F. Will, The Washington Post
“Brilliant.” ―Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times
“Mr. Frank re-injects economic-class issues into the debate with sardonic vehemence.” ―Jerome Weeks, The Dallas Morning News
“A searing piece of work . . . one of the most important political writings in years.” ―The Boston Globe
“Dazzlingly insightful and wonderfully sardonic . . . Frank has made much sense of the world in this book.” ―Chicago Tribune
“Impassioned, compelling . . . Frank's books mark him as one of the most insightful thinkers of the twenty-first century, four years into it.” ―Houston Chronicle
“Very funny and very painful . . . Add another literary gold star after Thomas Frank's name.” ―San Francisco Chronicle
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Some of the folks that Frank describes I see as ...
By William Magnus
Some of the folks that Frank describes I see as our own potential Taliban. Giving their lives for abortion rights. How brainwashed do you have to be to think that issue, which has nothing to do with you personally is more important than the general well being of the American people and how they are treated and governed. These people are only a step away from strapping on the C-4 and heading to an abortion clinic, with no concern for our education system, equality, taxes, corruption, our out of control banks, and on and on. Our country was founded on principles that have been discarded and these people could care less. Pulling the rug out from under the programs that would/could make the common person trouble makers for the government and the rich has been a very successful program indeed. We go to football games and races as if they were the only thing that mattered in life. Trouble ahead... Thank you Mr. Frank for pointing it out and how it started. I can see the end.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Polemical but useful.
By James W. Terman
Over a decade old but the author's thesis still applies to how and why so many people vote against their own long term best interests. A little rambling at times.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Defines the problem well; offers no solutions
By A Customer
First off, "A Reader from Missouri" who rated the book 1 star on July 4 didn't read the book because he speaks of "a north-eastern snob writes a book telling Kansans..." Only one problem: Tom Frank, the author, is from KANSAS, and he describes his upbringing there in detail. Now he lives in Chicago, but that's hardly the Northeast, and he spent an incredible amount of time in Kansas the last three years researching the book and interviewing people. Watch out for "reviewers" who haven't read the book their reviewing.
Although Frank is clearly a (dreaded, evil) liberal, he writes well and the book seems well researched. The gist of the book is describing how it happened that the state of Kansas turned from moderate Republican (Dole, Kassebaum) to far-right Rebublican (Ryun, Brownback) in less than a decade. Yes, Kansas was ALWAYS Republican, but now it's much, much, much farther to the right than it has ever been in its history. This in spite of its proud heritage as a battleground against slavery and the birth of 1890's farm-based Populism.
Frank details how working class Christian "social" conservative Republicans took over Kansas (and other states) from the moderate "economic" Republicans, in spite of the fact that the policies they support tend to benefit the wealthy, moderate, "economic" Republicans the most.
The major line of thought I got from the book is that ECONOMICS DON'T MATTER to the social conservatives. All they care about is abortion, decline of the family, reducing the size of government, and stopping government from telling them what to do, with abortion being the "real" issue.
What Frank doesn't answer is, "So what?" and "What are we to do with this info?" I would have enjoyed seeing some ideas on how moderate mainstream Republicans and Democrats, who constitute the true majority of Americans, can take their country back from extremists, be they left or right.
One thing the Democratic party should do is stop worrying about social conservatives. They are NEVER going to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Ever. IGNORE THEM. Concentrate on how you will get moderates to vote the Demo ticket, by making govt. more efficient, making health care affordable, ending corporate tax breaks and subsidies, advancing entrepreneurship, improving social security, reforming the military to fight terrorism instead of Cold War enemies, and making post-secondary education more affordable. In the end, it is the latter, creating more college-educated people, which will most benefit our country (in a time of outsourcing manufacturing) and the Democratic Party. Repeat after me: EDUCATION IS EVERYTHING.
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