{"product_id":"the-lies-of-the-land-seeing-rural-america-for-what-it-is-and-isnt-9780226826905","title":"The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is--And Isn't","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"piercing, unsentimental\" (\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e) history that boldly challenges the idea of a rural American crisis.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e It seems everyone has an opinion about rural America. Is it gripped in a tragic decline? Or is it on the cusp of a glorious revival? Is it the key to understanding America today? Steven Conn argues that we're missing the real question: Is rural America even a thing? No, says Conn, who believes we see only what we want to see in the lands beyond the suburbs--fantasies about moral (or backward) communities, simpler (or repressive) living, and what it means to be authentically (or wrongheadedly) American. If we want to build a better future, Conn argues, we must accept that these visions don't exist and never did. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Lies of the Land\u003c\/i\u003e, Conn shows that rural America--so often characterized as in crisis or in danger of being left behind--has actually been at the center of modern American history, shaped by the same forces as everywhere else in the country: militarization, industrialization, corporatization, and suburbanization. Examining each of these forces in turn, Conn invites us to dispense with the lies and half-truths we've believed about rural America and to pursue better solutions to the very real challenges shared all across our nation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteven Conn \u003c\/b\u003eis the W. E. Smith Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of many books, most recently \u003ci\u003eNothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50592538984722,"sku":"9780226826905","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_80713cb1-bbc7-4b29-a060-bee1ee13ac37.jpg?v=1764072898","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-lies-of-the-land-seeing-rural-america-for-what-it-is-and-isnt-9780226826905","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}