Heartland : : a Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

Locations
Call Number: 305.562 Sm, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Smarsh, Sarah
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	305.562 Sm	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	305.562 Sm	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	305.562 Sm	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Smarsh, Sarah	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Smarsh, Sarah	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Smarsh, Sarah	4-week checkout	Due 05-13-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Smarsh, Sarah	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024

Dear 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.
"During 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 mothers on 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."--Jacket.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Great book submitted by denisemw on August 31, 2019, 11:26pm Well written book describing growing up poor and pulling yourself out of an impoverished situation. What an accomplishment. Glad thes opportunities exist in the U.S. Also makes you sympathetic for those that do not have the smarts, drive, opportunity, or luck to do the same.