One Book One Marin 2018 – Strangers in Their Own Land

Posted by bonnie on 09 January 2018

2018 One Book One Marin Selection:

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning
on the American Right
by Arlie Russell Hochschild, sociologist and Berkeley resident.

Kick-Off Event – Tuesday, February 27, 7 pm at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Meet this year’s author, Arlie Russell Hochschild, buy or bring your copy of the book for an autograph and join us for a delightful evening as she shares her background and insights.

Culminating Event – Wednesday, April 18, 7 pm at Dominican University’s Guzman Hall Auditorium.  The author will be joined by KQED host and author Michael Krasny in a discussion of her book at this special culminating event. Presented in conjunction with the Dominican University of California Institute for Leadership Studies/Book Passage Spring Leadership Lecture Series.

San Rafael Downtown Library Programs:

Book Discussion
Thursday, March 22, 6:30 – 7:45 pm
Library Meeting Room

Facilitator: Ethan Annis, librarian at Dominican University of California.

“When I learned that OBOM selected Strangers in Their Own Land I enthusiastically volunteered to lead a discussion of the book because it profoundly reshaped my understanding of America.  In January 2017 I read Strangers In Their Own Land and it awakened me to what Arlie Russell Hochschild calls the “deep story” of many Americans who did not share my own deep story and why Donald Trump was able to resonate so thoroughly with that deep story.”

Our discussion will cover the entire book but due to time constraints will focus mainly on Chapter 9, The Deep Story (p. 135-152) and Chapter 15, Strangers No Longer: The Power of Promise (p. 221-230).

Workshop: 
Preparing for Difficult Conversations
Wednesday, March 28, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Carnegie Reading Room – 2nd floor of the library

Presenter: Marissa Wertheimer, Mediator and Trainer in the areas of Restorative Justice and Mediation

Join us in the library’s Carnegie Reading Room as professional mediator Marissa Wertheimer leads participants through a number of engaging, interactive exercises designed to help us cross “empathy walls” in our conversations with others.

Online Resource Guide: Learn more about Strangers in Their Own Land, view interviews with Arlie Russell Hochschild, read reviews from across the political spectrum, and more! This LibGuide was created by David Patterson, Librarian at College of Marin.

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All Marinet Libraries will be participating in One Book One Marin with book talks and other programs in March and April. More information can be found here: http://onebookonemarin.org/

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Here’s a description of the book from the cover:

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country–a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets–among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident–people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream–and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in “red” America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from “liberal” government intervention abhor the very idea?