“Timely . . . [the collection] paints intimate portraits of neglected places that are often used as political talking points. A good companion piece to J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy.”–Booklist The essays in Voices from the Rust Belt “address segregated schools, rural childhoods, suburban ennui, lead poisoning, opiate addiction, and job loss. They reflect upon happy childhoods, successful … upon happy childhoods, successful community ventures, warm refuges for outsiders, and hidden oases of natural beauty. But mainly they are stories drawn from uniquely personal experiences: A girl has her bike stolen. A social worker in Pittsburgh makes calls on clients. A journalist from Buffalo moves away, and misses home…. A father gives his daughter a bath in the lead-contaminated water of Flint, Michigan” (from the introduction).
Where is America’s Rust Belt? It’s not quite a geographic region but a linguistic one, first introduced as a concept in 1984 by Walter Mondale. In the modern vernacular, it’s closely associated with the “Post-Industrial Midwest,” and includes Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. The region reflects the country’s manufacturing center, which, over the past forty years, has been in decline. In the 2016 election, the Rust Belt’s economic woes became a political talking point, and helped pave the way for a Donald Trump victory.
But the region is neither monolithic nor easily understood. The truth is much more nuanced. Voices from the Rust Belt pulls together a distinct variety of voices from people who call the region home. Voices that emerge from familiar Rust Belt cities–Detroit, Cleveland, Flint, and Buffalo, among other places–and observe, with grace and sensitivity, the changing economic and cultural realities for generations of Americans.
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Voices From the Rust Belt is an offering of essays edited by Anne Trubek on the legacy of a post-industrial world in the once great manufacturing centers including Buffalo, Detroit, Flint, Akron, and Chicago.
I found these essays to be beautifully written and personally moving. I savored each essay, reading them one at a time. The stories are about places I know, stories I am familiar with.
These are stories that break my heart.
The book is divided into thematic sections.
Growing Up
Jaqueline Marino’s A Girl’s Youngstown begins with memories of the 1970s pollution that made her and her sister hold their breath when crossing the Market Street Bridge. It made me recall the smell of entering Tonawanda, driving up the River Road past the Ashland gasoline storage tanks.
The Kidnapped Children of Detroit by Marsha Music recalls White Flight and ponders how today Detroit can move forward without the crippling divisions of the past.
Busing, A White Girl’s Tale by Amanda Shaffer considers what she gained from the experience.
North Park, With and Without Hate by Jeff Z. Klein recounts growing up Jewish in Buffalo when prejudice was out in the open.
Life on the “slag heap of society” is presented by David Faulk in Moundsville. In Love and Survival: A Flint Romance, Layla Meiller admits her hometown taught her a pervasive sense of vulnerability.
Day to Day in the Rust Belt
Dave Newman talks about starting over in mid-life in A Middle-Aged Student’s Guide to Social Work as he learns the limitations of social work.
Fresh to Death is Eric Woodyard’s recounting of his double life drinking in a Flint neighborhood bar at night while working as an award-winning sportswriter by day.
Ben Gwin shares a heartbreaking story of addiction in Rust Belt Heroin Chic. Henry Louis Taylor Jr. asks Will Blacks Rise or Be Forgotten in the New Buffalo, proving that the racial division of progress plagues Rust Belt cities other than Detroit.
Aaron Foley asks Can Detroit Save White People?
Huda Al-Marashi writes about Cleveland’s Little Iraq community.
Geography of the Heartland
John Lloyd Clayton remembers a Cincinnati gay bar in A Night at the Golden Lion Lounge.
The lack of identity in assimilated white European families is addressed in Ryan Schnurr’s Family Bones.
The Fauxtopias of Detroit’s Suburbs by James D. Griffioen discusses Henry Ford’s legacy, from the Rouge plant to Greenfield Village’s idyllic nostalgia that whitewashes history. Eric
Anderson juxtaposes working in the steel mills, gentrification, and art in Cleveland in Pretty Things to Hang on the Wall.
I learned that “redneck” came from the red bandannas worn by Matewan unionizers in King Coal and the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum by Carolyne Whelan.
Martha Bayne questions accident or intention in Seed or Weed?
On the Evolution of Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail
Ecologist
Kathryn M. Flinn realizes the diversity of Rust Belt ecology in This Is A Place.
Mobility as benefit or detriment is considered in That Better Place; or the Problem with Mobility by G. M. Donley. Donley looks at how historic suburban growth impacted downtowns and offers ways to improve where we live instead of chasing the ‘dream home’ elsewhere.
Leaving and Staying
The pursuit of a relationship brings Sally Errico to move in Losing Lakewood. Notes from the Expatriate Underground by Margaret Sullivan is about nostalgic Buffalo natives looking for connection.
Confessions of a Rust Belt Orphan; or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Akron by Jason Segedy recalls the ‘smell of good jobs’ when Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World.
Our idealistic image of an upward line of progress must be replaced with the cycle of boom and bust.
And Connor Coyne talks about what it is like to bath a baby in Flint Water in Bathtime.
Thoughts
Voices from the Rust Belt will be poignant reading for those of us associated with these cities. We will connect with some readings, and definitely will learn we are not alone. I was surprised how Buffalo’s experience of white flight was not too unlike Detroit’s.
The stories will inform those who want to understand the Rust Belt experience on the personal level. There are essays that dig deeper, dissecting a history of public policy and boom and bust economics that contributed to the decline of these cities. Best of all, included are suggestions for moving forward.
This book would be a good discussion starter in the classroom or in a book club.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.