I would like to thank the authors and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book.

I found the content to be well written, easy to understand and well researched. It gave me a better understanding on why so many people seem to act against their self interest in such a passionate manner. And why it will be so difficult to change that environment and worldview. It was enlightening.

"Rural Rage" is a compelling exploration of the socio-political dynamics in rural America. The authors delve into the deep-seated frustrations and anger prevalent among rural white Americans, examining how these sentiments have shaped and been shaped by the political landscape. The book argues that rural America's loyalty to the GOP, despite receiving little in return, has led to a cycle of resentment and radicalization. Schaller and Waldman provide a thorough analysis of how media, particularly right-wing radio, fuels this anger, creating a feedback loop that exacerbates divisions. Overall, "Rural Rage" is a thought-provoking read that sheds light on the complexities of rural American politics and the broader implications for the nation's future.

A very worthwhile read and recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

“White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy” by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman is a provocative and timely exploration of the deep-seated discontent found in America’s rural communities. The authors, a political scientist and a journalist, delve into the complex tapestry of emotions and political beliefs that have shaped the rural American identity in recent years.

The book begins by setting the stage for the current climate of division, tracing back the roots of rural disenchantment to economic, cultural, and political shifts. Schaller and Waldman argue that this sense of alienation has been exacerbated by a perceived marginalization from the mainstream discourse, leading to a potent mix of anger and frustration.

Central to the book’s thesis is the idea that this rural rage, while only representing a fraction of the electorate, has an outsized impact on American politics. The authors contend that the democratic process is being threatened by a minority that wields significant power, influencing elections and policy decisions to a degree that belies their numbers.

The narrative is rich with data and anecdotes, painting a vivid picture of the rural landscape. The authors do not shy away from controversial topics, addressing accusations of racism, xenophobia, and a growing acceptance of authoritarianism in these communities. They also critique the response of the political left, suggesting that the demonization of rural voters only serves to deepen the divide.

“White Rural Rage” is a call to action, urging readers to engage with and understand the complexities of rural America. It is a sobering reminder that the health of a democracy relies on the inclusion and representation of all its parts, not just the loudest or the most powerful.

In conclusion, Schaller and Waldman’s work is a compelling examination of the currents that are shaping American democracy. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to comprehend the forces at play in today’s political arena and the importance of bridging the urban-rural divide for the sake of the nation’s future.

This is one of those books where you have to read it and interpret it yourself. I read it one was, like a sociologist would, and the Utah governor saw it as a book validating all this White Male Rage. Actually I am can't believe he even read it, we both saw it completely differently!
But I guess that is how everything is right now with this huge divide.
This is well written and important book and it also apparently validate White Male Rage. That is some talented writing!
Thank you for this ARC.

Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman's "White Rural Rage" is an explanation about how white rural citizens have been able to control the direction of elections and democracy itself. Schaller and Waldman describe how white rural citizens have been able to gain and maintain so much power in the US. When the country was founded, the founders believed that each state should have equal congressional representation, so now states like California and Montana carry equal weight in congress even though their populations are so much different. With these types of rules in place and gerrymandering, white rural voters fill the map red on each election cycle. This red and blue divide has only grown with the divisiveness of social issues and historical beliefs that lead urban citizens and rural citizens in vastly different thought directions. This book is really similar to Jonathan Metzl's "Dying of Whitness," which was actually quoted in "White Rural Rage." I recommend this book!

This book was 100% spot on and a MUST READ going into this fractious election season.

As someone who grew up in a very rural town, so much of what I read in this book rang so so true [and yet, there was SO MUCH that I learned and that both surprised and shocked me]. As someone who escaped to the urban world [several times] and had to involuntarily move back to a small town, I often despair at seeing what has become of the place I grew up in and at one point deeply loved being a part of. That is not to say I don't have friends that I love and respect here, because I do. But it has been difficult to watch them join a movement [and blame many that aren't actually to blame, but that they are being told and taught are the "baddies" and responsible for all their troubles] that is not going to end up like they think it is going to and will, ultimately, make life much more difficult for them [and those of us who are fighting against this very thing].

I really admire the authors for writing this book; it could not have been easy and I am sure they knew they would face so much negativity and "bad reviews" [be smart folks - many of those "bad" reviews are from the very people they are talking about and have not actually, you know, read the book], all of which are unfounded. One of the best things about this book is the fact that the authors show real empathy and understanding of rural life and what they write is a balanced and nuanced perspective - they are not out to demonize or dehumanize or even blame the rural dwellers; so much that has happened to the rural communities does not come from where we are being told it is coming from and they work very hard at showing that perspective. I believe their writing shows compassion and encourages readers to see beyond divisive political narratives.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to look at this very topic with an open mind and be willing to see just what the authors are presenting. You might just be surprised at all you will learn [I sure was!].

Thank you to NetGalley, Tom Schaller, Paul Waldman, and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's really hard to rate this book.

On the one hand, I'm so glad that people are finally taking off the blinders and seeing the truth - if I see one more book or news article trying to sympathetically explain Trump supporters I'm going to puke. This book at least lays it out bare with no attempts at dressing it up, and they back it up with facts, data and evidence.

On the other hand, this is just another book that's preaching to the choir. The people who truly could get something new and valuable out of this will NEVER read it - they prefer their self-imposed ignorance. So while I found myself nodding along and agreeing with much of the book, I also found myself thinking "what's the point?" Which is the thought that seems to crowd my mind these days anytime another book or article or news story comes out about Trump, since if people haven't seen the light by now, they are truly lost and nothing anyone says or writes will change it. What a sad state of affairs in this country.

A bracing look at a demographic that is, sadly, a major driver in modern politics, despite its small size. Finally someone who talks about the subject without delving into the romanticized tropes associated with it, someone who remembers that people of color also live in these rural areas.

White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman
Posted on February 25, 2024 by Jack


The book is “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy” by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman brings together a huge amount of information to discuss rural areas, their problems, and potential solutions as well as the current political situation which contributes to these problems and presents a threat to American democracy. I think that may be the longest and most complicated sentence I’ve written lately, so let me explain.

First. why just talk about Rural Whites. About 25% of rural residents are non-white. So in rural areas the whites pretty much control the majority of votes. And white voters are the one expressing rage at the government because they feel disempowered.

However they have more power than any minority group. They are a large minority but still a minority. The authors call them the “essential minority” since they are often in control. This is because of the original design of our government which was never changed. The Constitution gives each state 2 Senators.

In my review of Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point I put it like this: "

This leads to situation where California with 39 million residents and Wyoming with less than 600 thousand residents are equally represented in the Senate. To make matters worse the Senate has a filibuster rule where a minority of 41 of 100 Senators can block a bill. So the minority of Senators, often representing a very small percentage of the population can defeat a bill favored by a majority of Senators and a much larger majority of citizens.

The Electoral College is another problematic institution. In recent years, it has often resulted in the candidate with fewer votes of the citizens winning the Presidency by winning the most electors."

Rural regions have many problems and these are discussed at length in White Rural Rage. However failure to address them seem to be the fault of Republicans who keep getting re-elected by stoking rage rather that attempting to fix the problems. In many cases Republicans chose the act to benefit big-money benefactors at the expanse of rural residents.

The authors have several suggestions to improve the response of politicians to rural needs. My favorite is to elect better Republicans. Or make Republican and Democrat compete for votes. Rural residents deserve much better.

I thank NetGalley and Random House or allowing me read this before publication. The book is scheduled to go on sale February 27

We're a long way from "What's the Matter with Kansas," Toto. Schaller and Waldman do a fantastic job pulling together a huge a amount of information--some previously reported, much new--to show that the greatest threat to America is rural white Christians.

Despite the citizens of rural areas being treated as the only "real Americans," despite the government and society putting the thumb on the scale for them in every way since the founding, their parts of America haven't really been American culturally, economically and socially for more than a century. Rural areas are instead decaying, impoverished, drug-addled, violent, and dependent on government charity--everything the Rural White likes to project on "cities," that is, in his mind, Black ghettos--and full of workers like himself who aren't educated, who can't compete for what good jobs are left locally, and won't compete for the lousy jobs immigrants are willing to do because these are beneath him. In other words, rural areas are the Old Country, the place anyone with a brain, a will or a chance flees to find opportunity, become who they want to be, escape bigotry and oppression, and achieve the American Dream. And all this grinds the Rural White, who thinks he should be treated as a pillar of society, a proper Babbitt, because he's a rural, white and Christian (and certainly because he's male), when in fact he's just rubble in an antique land.

The trouble is, the electoral college and gerrymandering have given the Rural White tremendous power, power that's been cynically cultivated by the Republican Party in exchange for nothing that will improve his life except a way to vent his rage at being irrelevant. This is why he loves Trump. As the authors point out, Trump knows he's just a schnook from Queens who'll never be accepted by the swells in the city. Similarly, the Rural White is a schnook from the sticks and who, despite raging that the city looks down him, can't accept the fact that the city would rather not look at him at all. Thus, he is happy to follow Trump's lead in wanting to burn it all down if he can't be the only "real American" anymore. Remember: the Rural White is the same person who, when courts ordered his public pools to be integrated, closed the pools instead. He is a child who, if a game goes against him, takes the ball and leaves--and it's not even his ball.

I have just two complaints about the book.

One, the authors' solution to the problems of the Rural White, helping the Rural White, won't work because any help he gets he thinks of, in my opinion, as his due. Of course help should flow to him. It always has. It's what America does, help him. It's why he pays what taxes he's grudgingly willing to pay. What he hates is help flowing to non-rural non-white people too, as the authors point out when citing DYING OF WHITENESS. This is why direct Democratic appeals and actual programs don't change his mind. It remains to be seen, for instance, whether Biden walking with striking auto workers will actually help him even with those auto workers, let alone other unionized workers or lower class workers in general. They expect that. They are happy to take the help (just as Republicans happily take credit for Democratic programs they voted against), but, of course, getting any help only reminds the Rural White of his desperation, reminds him that he's a minority in every way now, and, because no REAL American needs or takes help from the government, that makes him bite the hand that feeds, especially if it's a Democratic hand.

The better solution is to abolish the Electoral College (or outwit it through popular vote compacts), redraw district lines so they aren't gerrymandered (as just happened in Wisconsin) and, thus, strip the Rural White of his undeserved, unearned power. Let his one vote count the same as the vote of everyone else.

Two, the authors go right up to the line of saying what's happened to our country, but don't actually do so (much like their subtitle naming the rage, not the rageful, as the threat), so let me:

American is now an apartheid state run by the Rural White. Despite his being a minority, we are subject to his small-mindedness, his lawlessness, his obsolete and anti-democratic attitudes, his grievances, his need for revenge, his violence and bigotry, his perverted and cruel version of Christianity--that is, as I see it, his collapsing narcissism, another thing he has in common with Trump. Fortunately, his is also a rapidly shrinking minority, in part because his "values" are repellent to a majority of actual Americans, especially anyone under 35; in part because his approach to the world furthers the destruction of his own world like an arsonist in a house of straw, and in part because he's largely elderly and eschews pandemic precautions and what medical care is left to him. It's possible his own nature as well as Nature itself will solve the problem of the Rural White before he destroys the rest of the country.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early look.

Even though it didn't start with Trump, Trump seems to have exacerbated the problems that already existed. White rural voters go against their own interests because they've been convinced that their hatred and rage are more important than their own country, health, their very lives.
It's depressing and the book hits you with fact after fact after fact. I've been trying to understand for years why people are so willing to pay MORE out of their own pockets because it makes them feel like they're keeping something good from someone else, someone they don't even know. Politics is such an important part of their identity.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Random House, for this advanced reader’s copy. This book was phenomenal and well researched. Easy to read, but maybe not so easy to hear information about citizens of white rural America. Authors did their research and backed up their findings with statistics and said if they didn’t find any evidence to support information. Best part of the book that will resonate will is that everyone does not need to vote Democrat, but if you vote Republican, vote for someone who will actually act on your behalf and work FOR YOUR INTERESTS. Oh, and actually just vote, cause your vote counts, everyone deserves the right to have their voice heard and has the right to vote, and voter fraud is NOT as common as you are lead to believe. Amazing book!

Well researched book looking at the politics of the rural white voter. Will any white rural people actually read this book? Probably not and they make end up here on GR calling it fake news. White people need to stop voting against their own best interests to "stick it" to the others.

I just reviewed White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller; Paul Waldman. #WhiteRuralRage #NetGalley

A well-researched, thought provoking book that fell short of being a clarion call to actually correct the actions of those that it is highlighting. As a self-acknowledged West coast liberal, I could agree with all the statements and research the authors put into this workl. Where it fell short was that there was no guidance based on their research about how to re-engage with the Rural White Electorate to actually help them to see that they are often voting against their own best interest and that they need to hold their elected leaders accountable for local interests instead of just buying into to xenophobic dog whistles and populist rhetoric. If you are a liberal this book is preaching to the converted but it will not be read by those in rural power or their constituents in any meaningful way.. I did like the focus on the Rural Minority Journey but again the authors didn’t give any recommendations on how to engage with and fire up those populations which in some rural counties can be a significant voting block.

Where do I begin? I really wanted to read this book for a number of reasons.
The main being if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat errors and failures over and over again.
I am not white nor do a live in a rural region, quite the opposite actually. I'm African-American, female, and I live in the city. I desperately want to understand the struggles faced by others. I truly believe that we will not move forward until we understand we have more in common. Once we acknowledge the commonalities we can meet in the middle on then differences.

Think of that SNL skit with Tom Hanks on 'Black Jeropardy' it was meant to be funny to there's truth to it.
Trump's success and the subsequent lookalike campaigns are a symptom of dissatisfaction.
I had no idea of the poor maternal care and health care, wages, education in rural American. I'm aware of the issues that plague my community less so of others. This book did an amazing job pinpointing the statistics and opening my eyes.
We all have to do better.

Thank you Tom Schaller, Paul Waldman and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to better educate myself.

The authors here have a definite point of view and they aren’t afraid to make it clear, but there’s a lot to like about WHITE RURAL RAGE and it’s backed up with solid facts. I took so many notes on this book that the review could be pages long, but the most important takeaways are that white, rural Americans are attacking the very core of democracy, and “are told daily by the people they trust that what they really need is more rage and resentment” which obviously does not lead anywhere good. They are told that China is their enemy when really it is big business consolidation, and it is conservatives who are the key to this entrenched corporate power, not liberals. This consolidation also causes us to have fewer media options which creates a crisis for democracy.

When Republicans are elected, which they are without even token opposition for the most part, they do not even deliver for rural whites, catering instead to cultural conservatives and business interests. When is the last time Republicans made a positive step for health care (rural whites are uninsured far more often than urban whites), education (often lacking in rural areas) or economic concerns? And how in the world did Donald Trump, of all people, become what the authors call the king of rural America? He in no way aligns with rural Americans, other than stroking their darkest impulses, telling them they are right to feel downtrodden and the correct response to that is rage. MAGA simply refers to a time when the right people were at the top and everyone else was kept in their place.

The authors point to four basic facts: rural whites are more xenophobic, more apt to believe conspiracy theories, less supportive of democratic principles like free speech and separation of church and state and more inclined to justify the use of force to resolve political disputes than their urban counterparts. It’s a pretty scathing indictment, but the authors offer statistics to back their claims and show how rural whites have an outsize influence on politics. The whole thing is fairly depressing, but also interesting. Recommended.

It was informative and made me look at things differently. What more can you ask? It wasn’t a repudiation of rural America, more an examination of how we got here. It was part horror and part hopeful. I don’t think I’ll ever look at pickup trucks the same way. Very well done and thought-provoking.

Diving into "White Rural Rage" feels like a journey into the heart of a nation I thought I knew but clearly needed to understand better. Schaller and Waldman skillfully pull back the curtain on the complexities of rural America, a place often oversimplified or misunderstood in mainstream narratives.

What resonated deeply with me was their genuine effort to humanize rural White Americans, a group often reduced to divisive stereotypes in our polarized times. They delve into the paradox of immense pride in country while feeling left behind by its promises—a sentiment that, while challenging, demands our attention and empathy.

While I wholeheartedly appreciate the book's insights, I couldn't help but wish for a deeper dive into actionable solutions. Still, their vision for an inclusive future, where all Americans feel seen and heard, is a much-needed antidote to the divisive politics that have plagued recent years.

In essence, "White Rural Rage" is essential reading for progressives like me. It challenges our assumptions, beckoning us to engage with the complexities of American democracy head-on. Schaller and Waldman's nuanced approach offers both a critique and a path forward, reminding us that understanding is the first step toward unity.

Two urban professors give their views on what they believe is happening in rural America and why it votes so overwhelmingly Republican. While undoubtedly holding many valid arguments, the authors can't hide their anger at people in rural areas who don't think as they do. This book is full of generalizations that lump all people in rural communities and on farms into one homogenous mindset, and that is its greatest drawback. The reader would do well to read more widely about this subject.

A fascinating and scholarly look at how rural America is changing in the Era in Trumpism. Learned a lot. I found the history if trucks as a symbol particularity fascinating. A great read.