Ezra's Bookshelf

Rust Belt Union Blues

by Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol · 385 pages · ~7 hrs

Politics & GovernmentSociety & Culture

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Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol investigate one of the most consequential shifts in American politics: why working-class voters in the Rust Belt moved from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Their research, conducted in western Pennsylvania, challenges accounts that focus solely on economic anxiety or cultural backlash. As unions declined in membership and influence, they argue, conservative institutions filled the vacuum. Gun clubs, evangelical megachurches, and business-friendly civic organizations provided the social networks and cultural frameworks that labor unions once offered. Skocpol, a Harvard political scientist known for her work on civic associations, and Newman conducted extensive interviews and analyzed organizational data to trace this transition. They show how deindustrialization hollowed out not just the economic base but the entire social infrastructure of working-class communities. The institutions that replaced unions promoted different values: individual responsibility over collective action, cultural conservatism over economic solidarity. The book offers no simple solutions but provides essential understanding of how American politics was transformed from the ground up.

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