From PUP, the introduction to In the Blood: Understanding America’s Farm Families by Robert Wuthnow. Coal, guns, freedom: A week in the life of the town that keeps your lights on. What do you get when you mix corporate interest with religiously motivated temperance? Joe Pinsker on why breweries are so rare in the American South. Alice Hines on how Utah became a bizarre, blissful epicenter for get-rich-quick schemes. Jesus vs. Aliens: Arielle Milkman on the culture war raging in Roswell, New Mexico, the UFO capital of the world. Jack Hitt on discovering the Deep South’s cliches all over again. Andrew Moore on how the arid landscape of the Great Plains is home to generations of pioneer homesteaders — and the ruins they left behind. What the Rust Belt can teach us about white flight, gentrification, and brain drain: With a focus on why people leave, we ignore at least half of the migration story.
IH8YRST8: Jess Stoner studies drivers across the country for signs of license-plate prejudice — or, why everyone loves Vermont drivers and hates Texans. Bloom and bust: Phillip Longman on how regional inequality is out of control — here’s how to reverse it. W. Ralph Eubanks on the land that the Internet era forgot.
