Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America

Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America

By: Cynthia M. Duncan  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Publisher: Yale University Press

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Wonderful Book - Heartbreaking stories of a society trapped in a cruel circle of politics and poverty. As someone who has observed the effect of politics and poverty in the region, I'm glad this book drives home the danger of the country's apathy toward those who live far below the poverty level.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Riveting - I come from rural America, where jobs are few. Duncan presents portions of my voice and she reveals how structural limitations continue to stifle many upright citizens who want to work, but can't find work in rural America. I would have liked to have seen more content analysis of the local media in the towns that Duncan studied.

Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Ideology overrides reality - Duncan creates caricatures of the three communities she studied to promote a paternalistic liberalism that can only fail to resolve the very real social inequities she observes. Her portrayal of "Dalhia," a semi-fictive town in the Mississippi Delta, is rooted in widely popular prejudice: all the whites are rich, almost all the blacks are poor. In fact, half of the white families earn below $25,000 a year, and a significant proportion of white families earn below $10,000. Her small sample of "upper" and "upper middle class" whites shoved these people from view. A far higher proportion of African Americans are poor and very poor, but her characterization of whites as uniformly wealthy and privileged is a canard. In 2004, virtually all political offices in the region -- and specifically in these two counties -- are held by African Americans. Further, she views an old New England town as a model for democracy -- conveniently overlooking that it was founded as a company town, and that it has a still-dynamic economy. The economies of the Delta and the Appalachian coal fields relied on extractive industries. When those industries played out, no matter their prior civic culture, they were stranded. She could have gone to any farming or coal region and found similar distress -- and, even in Kansas, deep class divisions -- the residue of prolonged economic decline. The book is an easy read and addresses important issues, but is so deeply flawed it should not be used in the classroom.

Customer Review: 1 out of 5
another basis for false stereotypes! - This book once again takes a great minority of the Mississippi Delta and makes it look like it is stuck in slavery days! This couldn't be more untrue. I agree that the Mississippi delta is a poverty srticken area, but it is not as backwards as this book makes it seem! Duncan took a look at ONE small community here in the delta when the Delta is home to at least 4 of the largest towns in the state of Mississippi! If the book was better researched then it might be good but this book inaccurately portrays Mississippi!

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Social Insurance & Economic Insecurity - The book Worlds Apart describes what life is like for people of different social classes in three different places in the United States. Blackwell* in the Appalachia, and Dahlia* on the Mississippi are two of these places where inequality is constant. Another place where Cynthia M. Duncan studies is Grey Mountain*, New England, where the opposite happens. Citizens are involved in local government; this helps to reduce class inequalities.
Duncan gets very in depth in discovering the roots of the problems of social inequality. Her research consists of visiting everyplace for an extended period of time, with dialogue from 40 of the 350 local people she interviewed in the book.
In Blackwell, she describes the everyday contempt the rich and poor hold for one another, and how neither side has any desire to meet in the middle. People in Blackwell are also distinguished by the job they hold. If you are lucky enough to hold a job, you become a "have", if you don't you become a "have not".
As the author describes, poverty and inequality situation is so drastic in Blackwell that a local pastor is forced to start weeding out candidates for Christian charity. He says everyday people come in and ask the church to pay for their groceries, gas, and other bills. Word has spread around the impoverished community about his good charity and he finds the numbers of his congregation rapidly rising. Duncan finds that experiences like this undermine community trust and reinforce community held opinions that the poor citizens scheme and manipulate the system.
Dahlia in the Mississippi Delta has similar class separation to Blackwell and contempt for one another. The book continues through Dahlia and Grey Mountain, New England. The New England section focuses on equality and civic involvement. Something unheard of in the previous two sections of the book.
The section after Grey Mountain, Northern New England is titled "social change and social policy". This section makes suggestions for solutions on how to combat the problems seen in Blackwell and Dahlia. The main point that Duncan is trying to make is that in order for real change to happen, a complete outside source is needed. One with no local ties or biases. Her suggestion is that federal aid come from the outside, where locals are unable to take advantage of aid, and aid is based on need rather than first come first served.
I suggest that before reading Worlds Apart, the reader look in the appendix and study the various trends. This will allow the reader to paint a more realistic picture of the three circumstances that Duncan describes.

* Real names have been changed

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