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Books: Deer Hunting with Jesus
Apr. 3rd, 2011 11:26 amHas anyone out there read Joe Bageant's Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War? I just stumbled across a review. It discusses the fate of the rural farming class since the corporatization of agriculture. Apparently, the book was quite popular in Australia, UK, and Europe but has been less widely read here in the States. But we don't even like to admit that we have social classes in this country so the title would be a turnoff.
My best friend in high school came from an Appalachian farming family, and I was fascinated and ocassionally repelled by their "Down Home" ways. Their house was filled with clutter and not in the best of repair. They always had a huge garden, and her father kept a few goats in the backyard. He sold the milk for cash, but I suspect that he really just wanted to have some livestock around. The goats were so cute--he often carried chewing tobacco, so they would try to search your coat pockets. A few times a year, her family drove south to visit the old farm in West Virginia. My friend said that you had to crawl under an electrified cow fence to get to the privy, lol. All of this was entirely outside my realm of experience!
It's interesting that (most) Americans no longer feel comfortable making jokes about blacks, women, or Jews, but they feel no such compunction about "hillbilly" jokes.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had read the book and what they thought of it.
My best friend in high school came from an Appalachian farming family, and I was fascinated and ocassionally repelled by their "Down Home" ways. Their house was filled with clutter and not in the best of repair. They always had a huge garden, and her father kept a few goats in the backyard. He sold the milk for cash, but I suspect that he really just wanted to have some livestock around. The goats were so cute--he often carried chewing tobacco, so they would try to search your coat pockets. A few times a year, her family drove south to visit the old farm in West Virginia. My friend said that you had to crawl under an electrified cow fence to get to the privy, lol. All of this was entirely outside my realm of experience!
It's interesting that (most) Americans no longer feel comfortable making jokes about blacks, women, or Jews, but they feel no such compunction about "hillbilly" jokes.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had read the book and what they thought of it.
