Bring Back Your People is a book we need in a time like this. While I don't think it is the best book for this area, it is a start. As the author said, no one else had written it, so he decided to.

This book is about helping to get your "Randy's" (aka pro-Trump, working class neighbors) to actually vote for their best interests and to help prevent them from falling into White Christian Nationalism. The author was raised in a poor, working class town (the author page on Goodreads is wrong, it seems), and he gives the reader ways to communicate effectively with these kind of people. This is clearly something worth discussing, as the country as a whole is slowly moving rightward despite people not agreeing with the majority of right-wing policies. This book has a lot of helpful information, but a majority of its advice is something I won't really be able to use. I think the author is correct that we need to actually LISTEN to people who disagree with us, rather than just snub our noses at them and laugh behind their backs about how they voted for things that are going to hurt them in the long run. However, this book is for those with activist energy, and I don't really have that. I think I can have conversations with people, but I don't live in a small town, so I can't really get my brother in law to join a mutual aid group. Regardless, I think this is a great starting point in an area that is very much lacking, book-wise.

I will say, I think this book is being 'review bombed' unnecessarily either by White Christian Nationalists or transphobes. So take the book's overall rating with a grain of salt.

Thank you to Netgalley and Broadleaf Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A timely and important read. Those who live in rural America and among the communities of the working poor will recognize themselves and their communities in this book.

I think this book is a great idea and can help some people, but, unfortunately, I can't use a lot of this advice. I can't get my parents and grandparents to join a mutual aid group or watch an educational movie with me. I don't have the resources to found a church or similar organization.

This book also focuses solely on reaching the people with the biggest economical disadvantage. I need to know how to talk to and help people who are closer to being in the middle class.

Ultimately, I think this will be helpful to others, but it left me no closer to an idea of how to break through the haze in the lives of the people I know.

Thank you to NetGalley and Broadleaf Books for the ARC.