Three recent titles illuminate issues affecting Midwestern culture and small town life:
Separately, these are all well-written and readable studies of Midwestern life. The authors have taken their time to interact and even live with their subjects, lending their portrayals of small-town folks touches of realism rather than resorting to caricature. Methland, naturally, deals with the methamphetamine epidemic in Oelwein, Iowa: one small town among many ravaged by the eponymous drug. The citizens of this small community are also struggling to find decent-paying jobs that will keep food on the table. Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism pulls back to focus on the region's economic concerns, pointing at the entire midwestern region as a cross-section of the nation without a strong economic centerpoint and reasonable transportation/accessibility to unify business concerns. The argument is extended by pointing out that the lack of a spokesperson or solid regional identity also prevents the midwest from being a business or tourism powerhouse in any meaningful way. Finally, Hollowing Out the Middle takes small towns to task, chiding them for pouring the lion's share of resources into the very youth who will move away and never return rather than focusing on the development and encouragement of the young people who stay behind.
On the surface, these books deal with issues that seem very disparate. How do drugs, lack of infrastructure and leadership, and youth cultivation tie together? They have much more to do with each other than you believe. The working class "stayer" youth of Hollowing out the Middle are easily the younger versions of the citizens of Methland, working two or more minimum wage jobs in order to stay afloat financially while relying on illegal drug use and dealings to stay alert and to bring in extra much-needed cash. The inability of people to move easily about the region, highlighted in Caught in the Middle, drastically affects the "achievers," who leave their small towns in order to have access to the global culture, opportunities, and multiculturalism that they cannot find at home.
All of the authors champion these separate crises as major reasons for the death of the American small town and its culture. But considered together, these books are a call to action for a leader or group of leaders to step up and start making the changes that are needed to preserve the Midwest as a heartland that adapts effectively to the unique circumstances of the 21st century.
Methland resources:
NYT Sunday Book Review
The author's Methland page
Caught in the Middle resources:
The author's Caught in the Middle page
The Chicago Council coverage
Seattle Post-Intelligencer coverage
Chicago Tribune coverage
Blogger coverage
Hollowing Out the Middle resources:
Authors' official page, with book trailer
Fun visualization tool from Forbes!
Try this interactive map - click on any county and see both out- and in-migration data. This is a perfect complement to Hollowing out the Middle.