Ezra's Bookshelf

The Politics of Resentment

by Katherine J. Cramer · 299 pages · ~5.5 hrs

Politics & GovernmentSociety & Culture

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Katherine Cramer spent years traveling to rural Wisconsin communities, attending meetings at gas stations and diners where locals gathered to discuss politics and life. What she found was not primarily ideological conservatism but something she calls 'rural consciousness'—a place-based identity built on feeling overlooked, disrespected, and shortchanged by urban elites. Rural Wisconsinites, she discovered, believed that cities received more than their fair share of resources, that their way of life was disdained by professionals and government workers, and that hard work no longer led to economic security. Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, developed her analysis before Trump's 2016 victory made rural resentment a national topic. Her ethnographic approach captures how identity politics works from the inside: not as an ideology people choose but as a framework for making sense of experience. The book illuminates why economic appeals from Democrats failed to resonate with voters who felt disrespected, and why cultural messages from Republicans found fertile ground. This is essential reading for understanding American political division.

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