Summary and Reviews of Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Media Reviews

Newsday Strangers in Their Own Land is extraordinary for its consistent empathy and the attention it pays to the emotional terrain of politics. It is billed as a book for this moment, but it will endure.

Forbes Strangers In Their Own Land is by far the best book by an outsider to the Tea Party I have ever encountered.

New York Times Book Review This is a smart, respectful and compelling book.

The Boston Globe The importance of emotion in politics, not just facts and figures, [Hochschild] writes convincingly, is critical to understand...a point politicians of all stripes would be smart to remember.

The Los Angeles Review of Books Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land will certainly be among the most timely of books in this moment of seeming near apocalypse...remarkable

The Nation An important contribution to the understanding of our times… Strangers in Their Own Land describes in vivid detail a world that is often ignored or caricatured by the media and by many liberals.

The New Republic Hochschild is fascinated by how people make sense of their lives...[She] conveys that she genuinely likes the people she meets, communicating their dignity and values...These attentive, detailed portraits...reveal a gulf between Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land and a new elite.

The New York Review of Books Satisfying…[Hochschild's] analysis is overdue at a time when questions of policy and legislation and even fact have all but vanished from the public discourse.

The New Yorker Up close there is a depth to the concerns of Hochschild's subjects...They are concerned about pollution, and about the social decay that we see most vividly in the opioid epidemic. They are aware...of facts on the ground.

The Economist The anger and hurt of the author's interviewees is intelligible to all. In today's political climate, this may be invaluable.

The Toronto Star Hochschild comes to know people - and her own nation - better than they know themselves.

Kirkus Reviews A well-told chronicle of an ambitious sociological project of significant current importance.

Publishers Weekly After evaluating her conclusions and meeting her informants in these pages, it's hard to disagree that empathy is the best solution to stymied political and social discourse

 Barbara Ehrenreich There could not be a more important topic in current American politics, nor a better person to dissect it. Every page - every story and individual - is fascinating, and the emerging analysis is revelatory.

 Joan Blades, co-founder of LivingRoomConversations.org, MomsRising.org, and MoveOn.org In her attempt to climb over the 'empathy wall' and truly understand the emotional lives of her political adversaries, Arlie Hochschild gives us a vital roadmap to bridging the deep divides in our political landscape and renewing the promise of American democracy. A must-read for any political American who isn't ready to give up just yet.

 Mark Danner, author of Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War A powerful, imaginative, necessary book, arriving not a moment too soon.

 Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley With compassion and empathy, [Hochschild] discovers the narrative that gives meaning and expression to their lives–and which explains their political convictions, along with much else. Anyone who wants to understand modern America should read this captivating book.

 Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt Arlie Russell Hochschild's work has never been more timely or more necessary, from the resurgence of interest in emotional labor to this deep, empathetic dive into the heart of the Right. Strangers in Their Own Land does what few dare to do - it takes seriously the role of feelings in politics.

Reader Reviews

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