For all the attempts to understand the state of American politics and the blue/red divide, our guest today believes we’ve ignored what economic and cultural loss can do to pride. What happens, Arlie Russell Hochschild asks, when people in a hard-hit region suffer the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel “stolen”?
In her latest book, Stolen Pride, Hochschild focuses on a large group swept up in this shifting political landscape: blue-collar men. In small churches, roadside diners, trailer parks, and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, Hochschild introduces us to unforgettable people, offering a lens through which to see them and the wider world. In Stolen Pride, Hochschild incisively explores our dangerous times, even as she maps a way forward.
Arlie Russell Hochschild is the author of The Second Shift, The Managed Heart, and Strangers in Their Own Land, which became an instant bestseller and was a finalist for a National Book Award. Hochschild is professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.
