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Heartland : a memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country on Earth / Sarah Smarsh.

Smarsh, Sarah, (author.).

Summary:
"During Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to examine the class divide in our country and the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. Her personal history affirms the corrosive impact intergenerational poverty can have on individuals, families, and communities, and she explores this idea as lived experience, metaphor, and level of consciousness. Born a fifth-generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side, Smarsh grew up in a family of laborers trapped in a cycle of poverty. Whether working the wheat harvest, helping on her dad's construction sites, or visiting her grandma's courthouse job, she learned about hard work. She also absorbed painful lessons about economic inequality. Through her experience growing up as the child of a dissatisfied teenage mother--and being raised predominantly by her grandmother on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita--she gives us a unique, essential look into the lives of poor and working-class Americans living in the middle of our country. Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is an uncompromising look at class, identity, and the particular perils of having less in a country known for its excess."-- Dust jacket.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781501133091
  • ISBN: 1501133098
  • ISBN: 9781501133107
  • Physical Description: ix, 290 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2018.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:
Dear August -- A penny in a purse -- The body of a poor girl -- A stretch of gravel with wheat on either side -- The shame a country could assign -- A house that needs shingles -- A working-class woman -- The place I was from.
Subject: Smarsh, Sarah.
Poor > Kansas > Biography.
Working poor > Kansas > Biography.
Farmers > Kansas > Biography.
Farmers > Kansas > Economic conditions.
Farm life > Kansas.
Kansas > Biography.
Genre: Autobiographies.

Available copies

  • 53 of 61 copies available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 61 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Albright Memorial Library 978.1 SMARSH (Text) 50686015392850 Storage Available -
Albright Memorial Library 978.1 SMARSH (Text) 50686015415131 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Altoona Area Public Library 978.1 SMA (Text) 33240004491349 Adult Nonfiction Checked Out 04/22/2024
Cambria County Library 978.1 S636h (Text) 85131001627646 CACM Non-Fiction Available -
Collinsville Community Library Adults Smarsh Biography (Text) 34259000482127 Adult Area Available -
Dalton Community Library 978.1 SMARSH (Text) 50689010420114 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Dillsburg Area Public Library Adults Smarsh Biography (Text) 34001001359270 Adult Area Available -
Dover Area Community Library Adults Smarsh Biography (Text) 34217000812842 Adult Area Available -
Exeter Community Library 978.1033 SMA (Text) 33249023746419 Non-fiction Checked Out 04/16/2024
Forest City 92-S SMAR Sma (Text) 38000000589511 SSQF Main Floor Available -


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