After thirty years spent scratching together a middle-class life out of a “dirt-poor” childhood, Joe Bageant moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where he realized that his family and neighbors were the very people who carried George W. Bush to victory. That was ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, is fast becoming the bedrock of a permanent underclass. Two in five of the people in his old neighborhood do not have high school diplomas. Ne... (show more)
After thirty years spent scratching together a middle-class life out of a “dirt-poor” childhood, Joe Bageant moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where he realized that his family and neighbors were the very people who carried George W. Bush to victory. That was ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, is fast becoming the bedrock of a permanent underclass. Two in five of the people in his old neighborhood do not have high school diplomas. Nearly everyone over fifty has serious health problems, and many have no health care. Credit ratings are low or nonexistent, and alcohol, overeating, and Jesus are the preferred avenues of escape.
A raucous mix of storytelling and political commentary, Deer Hunting with Jesus is Bageant’s report on what he learned by coming home. He writes of his childhood friends who work at factory jobs that are constantly on the verge of being outsourced; the mortgage and credit card rackets that saddle the working poor with debt, i.e., “white trashonomics”; the ubiquitous gun culture—and why the left doesn’t get it; Scots Irish culture and how it played out in the young life of Lynddie England; and the blinkered “magical thinking” of the Christian right. (Bageant’s brother is a Baptist pastor who casts out demons.) What it adds up to, he asserts, is an unacknowledged class war. By turns brutal, tender, incendiary, and seriously funny, this book is a call to arms for fellow progressives with little real understanding of “the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going, gun-owning America that has never set foot in a Starbucks.”
Deer Hunting with Jesus is a potent antidote to what Bageant dubs “the American hologram”—the televised, corporatized virtual reality that distracts us from the insidious realities of American life. (show less)
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WHEN Joe Bageant returned to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, he rediscovered his redneck roots: “the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going... (show more)
WHEN Joe Bageant returned to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, he rediscovered his redneck roots: “the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going, gun-owning America that has never set foot in a Starbucks”. But Bageant soon realised that these disenfranchised people were the very same who had carried George W. Bush to victory. Twice. Deer Hunting with Jesus is a raucous mix of storytelling and political commentary. Bageant delivers a dose of redneck reality, describing ‘white trashonomics’ (mortgage and credit-card rackets that saddle the working poor with debt), the ubiquitous gun culture, factory jobs that are constantly on the verge of being outsourced, and the heady blend of Scots/Irish culture with the blinkered ‘magical thinking’ of the Christian right. By turns brutal, tender, incendiary, and seriously funny, Deer Hunting with Jesus is a potent antidote to what Bageant dubs ‘the American hologram’— the televised, corporatised, virtual reality that distracts us from the insidious realities of American life. What it adds up to, Bageant argues, is an unacknowledged, American class war from which alcohol, overeating and Jesus are the preferred avenues of escape. (show less)
I dislike the proof by single example approach this book takes. I think his observations if couched as observations would have more power if each a... (show more)
I dislike the proof by single example approach this book takes. I think his observations if couched as observations would have more power if each anecdote was not presented as proving a rule.
That said, a good window into the lives of the less fortunate in America and how they might approach the world, politics, etc. (show less)
Deer Hunting With Jesus tries to explain why the working poor always seem to be for conservatives, and consequently, against their own interests. It's a good read if you are already in the liberal choir, but it is doubtful that those whose eyes might have been opened by this book will make it very far into it--the author will have offended them so egregiously by the end of chapter 1 they won't continue. That's too bad; later chapters are better and even insightful. I would recommend reading... (show more)
Deer Hunting With Jesus tries to explain why the working poor always seem to be for conservatives, and consequently, against their own interests. It's a good read if you are already in the liberal choir, but it is doubtful that those whose eyes might have been opened by this book will make it very far into it--the author will have offended them so egregiously by the end of chapter 1 they won't continue. That's too bad; later chapters are better and even insightful. I would recommend reading only small chunks at a time, though. In little pieces, you get the humor; in larger ones, you may get depressed. (show less)
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I really enjoyed this book. It's amazing to me that people can be swindled into not looking after their own best interests, but religion, media, and politics have been doing just that for a long time. My favorite chapter was about the fundamentalist Christian movement. I learned quite a bit about just how insane those people are. Some call for a theocratic state at the expense of the Constitution and some don't give a damn about the planet because the rapture will come and take them away anyw... (show more)
I really enjoyed this book. It's amazing to me that people can be swindled into not looking after their own best interests, but religion, media, and politics have been doing just that for a long time. My favorite chapter was about the fundamentalist Christian movement. I learned quite a bit about just how insane those people are. Some call for a theocratic state at the expense of the Constitution and some don't give a damn about the planet because the rapture will come and take them away anyway. Crazy. I also enjoyed the chapter about Lynddie England. She was thrown completely under the bus and it's nice to see some people standing up for her as a fallable human being. Great book. (show less)
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