Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War

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Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War

by Joe Bageant

3.78 · rating details · 1,017 ratings · 311 reviews

After thirty years spent scratching together a middle-class life out of a “dirt-poor” childhood, Joe Bageant moved back to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where he realized that his family and neighbors were the very people who carried George W. Bush to victory. That was ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, is fast becoming the bedrock of ...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published June 24th 2008 by Three Rivers Press (first published June 19th 2007)

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Jan 11, 2012

Chris rated it

This Slim Jim is blisteringly funny, humorously vitriolic, blue jean bluesy, and eye-opening to say the least. I thought some of the hillbillies I knew who got drunk and fought at the tavern with their sallow cousins from the tented corners of Lanark County had some issues, but they were as nothing compared to this gun-loving, Jesus-loving, hard-working, hard-drinking, scale-bending, low-paid and low-expectation breed of checkered boys 'n gurls as revealed through the talented pen of Bageant, a ...moreThis Slim Jim is blisteringly funny, humorously vitriolic, blue jean bluesy, and eye-opening to say the least. I thought some of the hillbillies I knew who got drunk and fought at the tavern with their sallow cousins from the tented corners of Lanark County had some issues, but they were as nothing compared to this gun-loving, Jesus-loving, hard-working, hard-drinking, scale-bending, low-paid and low-expectation breed of checkered boys 'n gurls as revealed through the talented pen of Bageant, a good old boy hisself come on home after decades abroad slurping coffee with the eggheads and elites. Cruelly dealt with by Republican policies and hypocrisy—and not much better served by the Donkey throngs—they'll be damned if they'll take a hand-up from the effeminate and condescending fancy boys living it up back east—or scheming endlessly at the library (where the latter is still available)—who'd faint at the sight of a buck's blood, crumble to pieces changing a flat tire, and would never break a sweat ripping the pull cord of a chainsaw or dealing death to an enemy of America. Thus, bound ever more straightly by their pride in their past, their country, their perceived hard-working independence—which is pandered to by politicians and taken advantage of by savvy money men—and their love for Jesus Christ their personal savior, they find themselves grinding—and wasting—away at two and three jobs just to pay the rent and put food on the table and pay off the usurious interest rates on their maxed-out credit cards. Unions are withering and infrastructure crumbling while wages remain stagnant and ever more industries and employers leave the hinterland for good; and of those that stay, their workforce punches out ten-hour shifts in mortal fear of illegal immigrants coming in and taking away their livelihood, their chance for a few snatches of privilege for all of the grim days put in sweating it for peanuts. It's a bleak and heart-wrenching picture that Bageant paints, and one he had foreseen back when he originally escaped this red-necked world by pursuing higher education—for those who lack the latter seem condemned to a life in which their physical, mental, spiritual and financial arteries harden and clog under a relentless regimen of junk food served up by the very system ingrained into them before they learn to drive.

Poor old Bageant succumbed to that supreme-slayer cancer recently, and was given a nice sending off by close friend and fellow iconoclast journalist Fred Reed. The fact is that Bageant pries deeply—and with the keen insight of the native-born—into the conundrum of the Republican-voting rural white working poor in a similar vein to recent work by Thomas Frank; though Joe's outrage boils through the pages, and his anger at the scamming system that deals so cruelly with these people is more palpable, his anecdotes more punchy, than those of the Kenosha Kid. While Bageant is likely playing for effect at times, this polemic does carry the ring of truth, at least as discernible from my own Canadian perspective. The problem, as with all such broadsides that I've encountered, is that there are no realistic or workable—or even hopeful—solutions put on the table. Indignation is fine, and being aware of what is going on is always the vital first step, but it's not like this state of affairs came about overnight—and capitalism by its very nature will always create losers, cast people aside; and in a globalized market, corporations will seek out low taxes, cheap labor, and minimal regulations. There needs to be a systemic change if Bageant's outrage is ever to be addressed in a manner that he'd have approved of, and where is the political willpower these days to even start taking the first steps? Indeed, it seems more likely to actually head in the other direction. There's a certain element of the American Identity that perceives in such lean and unentitled existence all that is good and noble and hale about the United States, all that made her strong and vibrant to begin with; it's classified as a cherished Freedom—ofttimes from within the same depressed environs in which these tautened figures pass their lengthy and laborious days—though, as Bageant chronicled in these pages, it's a peculiar looking freedom when viewed through glasses lacking that particular rosy tint.(less)

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Dec 19, 2007

Christy rated it

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Shelves: general-nonfiction, social-class

Joe Bageant's Deer Hunting with Jesus belongs to the tradition of books that has given us Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto. These books all aim to clarify the position of an all-too-often-overlooked cultural group and, in doing so, they ultimately aim to help this group.

This book is by turns funny and heartbreaking in its description of people who make little money, vote Republican en masse (whether this is in...moreJoe Bageant's Deer Hunting with Jesus belongs to the tradition of books that has given us Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto. These books all aim to clarify the position of an all-too-often-overlooked cultural group and, in doing so, they ultimately aim to help this group.

This book is by turns funny and heartbreaking in its description of people who make little money, vote Republican en masse (whether this is in their economic interests or not), see buying a doublewide trailer as a good investment, value their guns and the traditions that they accompany, are overwhelmingly Christian and fundamentalist at that, fight amongst themselves, and cannot afford healthcare, too often dying alone in substandard nursing homes because neither they nor their families can afford better. Bageant walks the fine line between mocking people who don't see the ridiculousness of some of their actions, pitying them for the poverty and suffering they endure and the hopelessness of the life they are raised to lead, and evoking righteous outrage on the behalf of those who are taken advantage of by other humans with more money and a better education.

If you or your family belong to the social class or cultural group described by Bageant, you will recognize the experiences and values he describes and will benefit from his explanation of the sources of said values and his defense of the people who live these lives. He is able to put this way of life in a larger context that shows how limited and tragic this life can be while refusing to trivialize or demonize it. While he himself has moved away from most of the hallmarks of this lifestyle, he has lived and he still loves parts of it and the people who live it.

If you do not belong to the group Bageant describes, you need to read this book and learn about the people you likely never think about and know little to nothing about. Bageant deals with the stereotypes (and their basis in reality) but he goes beyond that to explain why people behave in this way, what in their history and present experiences leads them to these beliefs and behaviors, and what they gain from continuing in these habits. There are too many Americans who belong to the culture described by Bageant for them to be easily ignored--and yet they are ignored. This is dangerous for them and for everyone else.(less)

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Jul 06, 2007

Dave rated it

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Recommends it for: Americans, red staters or not

Shelves: politics

Really a great read, well-written, concise, and spot-on.

Bageant grew up in the rural south (Winchester, Virginia) and knows from rednecks. He's not disingenuous at all, not a snobbish elite looking outside-in. He wants to love these people, like his brother, who's a pastor still living in the town he grew up in, or the mooks in the dive bar where he shoots the bull.

In the book, he goes back to find that what the world knows as squabbling Scots-Irish white trash has gott...more

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Nov 16, 2008

Todd rated it

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Shelves: kindle

Right before the election The Onion featured a story with the headline "Struggling Lower-Class Still Unsure How Best To Fuck Selves With Vote." That pretty much sums up the main topic and tone of this book.

The author goes back home to live among the struggling lower class rednecks of Winchester, VA and writes about what he sees. (Rednecks, not white trash, he is careful to note. You will understand the taxonomy of poor white people a little better after reading this book.) ...moreRight before the election The Onion featured a story with the headline "Struggling Lower-Class Still Unsure How Best To Fuck Selves With Vote." That pretty much sums up the main topic and tone of this book.

The author goes back home to live among the struggling lower class rednecks of Winchester, VA and writes about what he sees. (Rednecks, not white trash, he is careful to note. You will understand the taxonomy of poor white people a little better after reading this book.)

This isn't one of those stunt-y books where a white liberal fills out his or her book by working at Wal-Mart, going to 100 churches, etc. This is a guy going back home to find that his younger brother is casting demons out of people and that his old pot smoking musician buddy is now a dittohead. No cultural tourism here.

For me the most interesting part is where he lays out Scot-Irish/Borderer culture as the basis for poor white culture in America. No matter how specious the argument, anyone who can draw a line from King James I to Sean Hannity is my kind of guy.

He makes the hilarious point that most of them came to Virginia as ballast, self-unloading cargo that kept the empty ships returning to the New World from being too buoyant. That they were smuggling Calvin's ghost on the voyage is something that still roils our culture today.

Related to this and far less amusing is the hold that well organized Protestant religion has on these people. Several generations since desegregation have been home schooled or sent to religious schools, after which they wait like a mass of Manchurian candidates for instructions on how to vote and where to send their meager savings.

Mr. Bageant's book sometimes suffers when he forces anecdotes to make the point he wants to make, like when a student gets in trouble for keeping a replica gun in his truck before a battle reenactment. After a few pages of hand wringing, we learn anti-climatically that a judge threw out the case.

That said, the chapter about guns was the most convincing one in the book. And it's good to know that these poor people that we elites are sneering at through the media not only outnumber us but are pretty handy with guns to boot.

I noticed that some reviewers were put off by the pessimistic outlook of the book and the black humor of its jokes. I didn't find this a problem at all, though I'm not sure if this was because of the underlying compassion of Mr. Bageant's writing or just the fact that I enjoy cynicism similar to the way Superman draws power from our yellow Sun.

So many institutions line up to fuck over the lower classes that there are a few surprises (Social Security, non-profit hospitals) along with the usual suspects (predatory lenders, large corporations, the media, the educational system).

The only solution Mr. Bageant offers to get out of this mess is better education, which is probably the most bitter and cynical statement in the book until you realize he isn't kidding.(less)

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Feb 17, 2008

Billrogers rated it

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Deer Hunting with Jesus is well-written; Joe Bageant has a way with words and with wry humor. I love the title! But ultimately the book disappointed me, and reading it was a waste of time.

As I read the first few chapters, I found myself agreeing with the author, and often laughing out loud. Ultimately, though, Bageant's pessimism dragged me down, and by the time I finished the book, I was more than a little pissed off at him.

Bageant appears to believe there is a master p...moreDeer Hunting with Jesus is well-written; Joe Bageant has a way with words and with wry humor. I love the title! But ultimately the book disappointed me, and reading it was a waste of time.

As I read the first few chapters, I found myself agreeing with the author, and often laughing out loud. Ultimately, though, Bageant's pessimism dragged me down, and by the time I finished the book, I was more than a little pissed off at him.

Bageant appears to believe there is a master plot to anesthetize working-class Americans by feeding them "operating instructions" and "a media-generated belief system" via television, by giving them a poor quality public education, and by providing affordable consumer products. He has it backwards. Corporations maximize their profit by providing what people want, even if it's not what's best for them. That's the imperfect reality of freedom and democracy.

Bageant is an admitted socialist. Apparently he wants government to remove shows like "Law and Order" from TV, and replace them with, what? Programs that Bageant approves as educationl and good for the mental health of the working class? Sure, let's shove "Masterpiece Theater" down Joe Sixpack's throat. That'll work. Not.

One of the reasons that public education has become worse is that people vote for local candidates who promise to reduce their taxes. And people buy made-in-China big screen TVs at Walmart because they want to, not because someone is forcing them to.

I am 60 years old, and I have read many books about doomsday scenarios that never came to pass. "American Hologram," the last chapter of Deer Hunting, is in that category, I believe.

The worst part of this book is that Bageant fails to provide even one practical suggestion for improving the lives of working men and women. "Turn off the hologram" is meaningless nonsense.

"We have met the enemy and he is us," as Al Capp observed. Democracy is a messy process that offends socialists, who think they can do a better job. Thanks, Joe, but no way, pal.(less)

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Dec 13, 2007

Malcolm David Logan rated it

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Recommends it for: white working class people

Oh boy, are the ditto heads and Bill O'Reilly fans gonna hate this one (rubbing hands together with glee). Imagine, a former small town redneck rejects the assertion that higher education is a form of snobbery, goes to California, gets a degree and embraces "the humanities" (gasp!) and then returns to his origins with compassion and outrage over how his people are being dumbed down and economically raped by the very forces that claim to be their standard bearers, the good ol' GOP, eve...moreOh boy, are the ditto heads and Bill O'Reilly fans gonna hate this one (rubbing hands together with glee). Imagine, a former small town redneck rejects the assertion that higher education is a form of snobbery, goes to California, gets a degree and embraces "the humanities" (gasp!) and then returns to his origins with compassion and outrage over how his people are being dumbed down and economically raped by the very forces that claim to be their standard bearers, the good ol' GOP, everybody's champion of the working class! But Joe Bageant doesn't stop there. He points out, quite rightly in my view, that the Dems insulting hypocricy, shedding crocodile tears over the plight of the white working poor while climbing in bed with the same predators who bid down working people's wages and refuse to provide Americans retraining after shipping their jobs overseas, is just as bad - maybe worse - since the Dems don't have a BS economic theory like trickle-down economics to justify stealing from the poor to give to the rich. It's no wonder that rural America is shell-shocked and woozy, stuggling valiantly to keep their heads above water, even as the sharks circle. And don't think you're getting off easy, you smug urban liberals with your I-told-you-so attitude that lets you turn your back on your flim-flammed cousins from the hinterland and write them off as a bunch of nitwit yokels. They may be backing the wrong pony, but they're not so dumb as you think. They're still linked in to a quaint but fundamental notion of what it means to be an American, independence, fortitude, perseverance and dignity, which makes it all the more pathetic that they're being hoodwinked by rightwing demagogues but doesn't absolve you of respecting them or their ideals. When these people are ultimately ruined and dispersed, and their way of thinking denigrated to insignificance, we will have lost something essential to the American character, and as a nation we will suffer for it, even if Cargill and Halliburton and Walmart and Exxon, and all their sainted stockholders still prosper. (less)

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Nov 30, 2008

Crawfords444 rated it

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Recommends it for: Young adults with time to make a change.

This current 2007 book accurately describes many of the poorest in Winchester, Virginia. It applies to others in Applachia.Chapter seven, about our health care system and description of what happens to persons in government supported nursing homes is especially scarry. Chapter three, "the mortgage racket will.." changed in November 2008, but explains what caused one aspect of the present economic situation. Depressing in its descriptions, it may motivate young people to pursue another...more

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Jan 16, 2012

Jason King rated it

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Bageant's quest to understand why "his people" - a term he tintinnabulates to refer to Virginia "rednecks" (his words, not mine) - so often vote against their interests. He comes to interesting conclusions but the ones that seem the most apt are often flippantly disregarded - that the source of wealth in Appalachian Virginia is in land, for example - would provide an interesting anthropological connection since societies built on wealth derived from land, everywhere and anywh...more

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Feb 03, 2009

Lauren rated it

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I obviously only picked up this book because I thought it would be about deer hunting and Jesus, two of my favorite subjects. (I was in an enormous rush at the bookstore -- it was closing and the lady was practically dragging me out by my arm and I had to choose something, or else I would be book-less, which would send me into panic.)

Had I spent two more seconds reading the large text immediately below the title, I would have seen in rather large letters "Dispatches from Americ...moreI obviously only picked up this book because I thought it would be about deer hunting and Jesus, two of my favorite subjects. (I was in an enormous rush at the bookstore -- it was closing and the lady was practically dragging me out by my arm and I had to choose something, or else I would be book-less, which would send me into panic.)

Had I spent two more seconds reading the large text immediately below the title, I would have seen in rather large letters "Dispatches from America's Class War." Okay, so it's not really about Jesus. Fool me once, shame on me. I though it sounded interesting, anyway, and it was. I felt that Bageant brought us to the world of the white working class (which, by the way, I was surprised to find out I didn't really technically understand what "working class" actually means) with a unique perspective -- although it seemed sometimes he was talking down about them, he really wasn't. This is his hometown, the people are not un-relatable specimen in a science experiment, they are his family and friends and in some ways himself, and he is honest in dealing about what they care about, what they do, what they fear, and what their lives are like.

My family is from a poor, steel town in Western Pennsylvania, and I am glad that I got to spend a lot of time there as a kid, because after growing up in a pretty snooty town in Ohio and then moving to New York City, I think it's important to see that this is not how most people live. That if you are educated, actually have enough money for food, medicine, gas, etc., insured, working for more than $9 / hour (I could go on), you are lucky, and not like the people in Winchester, VA. A lot of my friends haven't the slightest clue about what it's like to live in a place like Winchester or Sharon. Like me, and the "liberal elite," they are, as Bageant describes:

"living the American Dream in relative economic safety. Yet they don't think of themselves as elitists. Overwhelmingly white and college educated, they live among clones of themselves. As far as they know, American life is about money, education, homeownership, and professionally useful friends. How can one blame them? Conditioning is everything and how could they fail to believe their own experience or what they see every day, all of which suggests that their privileges are natural and deserved? "

I am guilty of this as well. And that's why it's good that I read this book. When I read the above paragraph, which appears toward the beginning, I still wasn't sure I was going to stick with the book. (I mean where was Jesus?! Where was the deer hunting?!) But I read that paragraph and thought, wow that would be pretty ironic if I got to the part about how the liberal elite have no idea wtf is going on and I am being handed an opportunity to see wtf is going on and instead I put down the book and go, 'eh, I care, but not THAT MUCH.'

Know what I mean?
(less)

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Dec 24, 2008

Rachel rated it

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Shelves: favorites

This book should be required reading for anyone who listens to NPR, lives in a "liberal ghetto" and wonders why people vote Republican against their own self-interest.
Bageant is from Winchester, VA and this book is about the working class people that he grew up with. It explains their plight as working class people in America, and how lack of education combined with religious fundamentalism keeps them brainwashed into believing in a system that absolutely does not benefit them...more

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Sep 07, 2008

Tam rated it

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Shelves: brought-to-you-by-powell-s

You know those conversations you get into with that guy, who's more than a casual acquaintance but not quite a friend, sitting at that bar, where the conversation is better than the well drinks? This is kind of one of those. The conversation turns into a rather one-sided rant that you can occasionally get a comment in edgewise, but most of the time you're fine just letting it flow around you, absorbing the piece of wisdom here and there and arguing with a small point every once in a while and w...more

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Aug 05, 2008

Regulator rated it

Shelves: tom

It was a slow afternoon, the store was empty. He walked in alone. There were just the two sunglass dudes standing around outside the front door. It was Barack Obama, browsing at The Regulator.

We stayed cool. Gave the man some space. That's a big part of what this bookstore thing is all about--giving folks space to breathe, space to think, space to find something new. So we gave him his space, but I guess he didn't have much time. After a few minutes he came up to the counter and ask...more

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Apr 04, 2008

Jesse rated it

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Recommends it for: Anthropologists

Living in Virginia I can identify with his view of the garden variety Virginia Red Neck. Freedom, torque wrench, Dodge Hemi, old glory, and AR-15 are all words that flow of their tongue as frequently as John 3:16 is quoted in their hive like Mega Churches. And like the drones of a hive, they follow the dictates of their presidential hive leader with little thought of their own interests.

Joe presents a scary and depressing side of America. One that offers not a glimmer of hope fo...moreLiving in Virginia I can identify with his view of the garden variety Virginia Red Neck. Freedom, torque wrench, Dodge Hemi, old glory, and AR-15 are all words that flow of their tongue as frequently as John 3:16 is quoted in their hive like Mega Churches. And like the drones of a hive, they follow the dictates of their presidential hive leader with little thought of their own interests.

Joe presents a scary and depressing side of America. One that offers not a glimmer of hope for our country. A brain-washed religious ideologue is not taught to think for themselves but to only regurgitate the thoughts of the Republican collective as gospel. If you don’t walk the line then you are just another commie, UN loving, traitor who wants to take away their freedom.

He also pokes fun at the coffee shop "liberal" who likes to identify with the working class man yet whose circle of friends are usually found in Ethan Allen buying matching leather sofa's. Joe points out that despite Liberal's claim to also represent their interests we want to have nothing to do with them. This can be seen in Bill Clinton's disdain for them when he labels them "Joe Six Pack". How many Clinton staffers do you think deer hunt or know what a CV joint is? At least the Republican, undercutting their interests, walks the talk. They shoot guns on the weekend, attend fundamentalist churches, wave flags at parades, and get drunk on cheap beer while farting out bawdy jokes. The Republican red neck can more identify with someone who walks and talks like him rather than the guy who would rather go wind surfing at the "Vineyard".

His commentary on Virginius Rosa Neckus is like watching a nature show. He follows them into their natural habitat. Whether it is a civil war reenactment, karaoke night at the local dive, or the demon-casting mega church down the road. Each vignette is filled with humorous characters that are unfortunately real.

A good laugh. Like watching howler monkeys at the zoo without poo being thrown at you. God help us if this is the new vox populi.

(less)

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Oct 29, 2007

Rod White rated it

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Recommends it for: people who want to think long enough to escape their slavery

Having lived just up the road from Joe Bageant's Winchester VA, I was interested to read about people I learned to love. One of my friends insisted I read this book immediately and talk it over, since so much of what I rant about was more artfully written than I rant. It is not a Christian book, but I think Jesus would aprove of someone telling the truth about what oppresses us. I haven't been so entertained by a collection of essays in I-don't-know-how-long -- but I was also inspired to keep th...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Tyler Anderson rated it

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I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. Maybe I DID like this book more than I did. Hmmm. First off, it is a collection of essays, not a single stream. They all center on the lives of the people of this man's hometown of Winchester, VA, which he offers as a microcosm of the American white working class experience. That may be debatable, but I can accept his premise in a broad sense.

What feels strong about this book is that it is not simply OpEd dithering and blathering by ...moreI wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. Maybe I DID like this book more than I did. Hmmm. First off, it is a collection of essays, not a single stream. They all center on the lives of the people of this man's hometown of Winchester, VA, which he offers as a microcosm of the American white working class experience. That may be debatable, but I can accept his premise in a broad sense.

What feels strong about this book is that it is not simply OpEd dithering and blathering by some liberal guy. These essays are built over a framework of verifiable research, whether into the realities of guns in America, or of trailer home society, or factory work, or health care. That I can genuinely appreciate. This isn't the vapid fluff and catchphrase anti-Republicanism that made me chase Obama pollsters in ironic shoes off my lawn. This guy, in many but not all places through this book, is less on the preaching and more on the numbers. And it's in those chapters where Bageant is at his best. Are mobile homes cheap? Are we all going to be shot by evil gun owners? Does hard work bring "success?"

Occasionally, the author does slip into everything-is-awful soliloquy. Nowhere does he doe so more ponderously than the last chapter, a ho-hum finale to his book where he stumbles about trying to give shape to the idea of a society dominated by spectacle and media, obsessed more with abstraction and branding than personal experience and education. Hey, point taken, but it devolves into a grinding miasma without offering a window to see beyond it; and it feels like an afterthought trying to provide an explanation for why the rest of the topics in the book could be so. A sour ending on an otherwise enjoyable book.

People who are unimpressed with the American 1.5 party system and its war on the poor, but who don't think that the answer is for us all to eat out of the garbage and drum for peace—you know, people who like Kucinich AND own a gun—will get something out of this book. (less)

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Feb 07, 2009

Matt Howard rated it

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Joe Bageant is a very interesting person. We have become so used to the stereotype that left/liberal writers and politicos will be anti-gun, that finding an exception actually feels strange and discordant. Mr. Bageant's book is a polemic. The chapter relying most heavily on research for support is the chapter on gun ownership, He includes some interviews and some citations to events on the public record in other chapters, but basically his book is an ad hominem attack on neo-conservatives and Re...moreJoe Bageant is a very interesting person. We have become so used to the stereotype that left/liberal writers and politicos will be anti-gun, that finding an exception actually feels strange and discordant. Mr. Bageant's book is a polemic. The chapter relying most heavily on research for support is the chapter on gun ownership, He includes some interviews and some citations to events on the public record in other chapters, but basically his book is an ad hominem attack on neo-conservatives and Republicans for their failures to institute national health insurance, for their support of NAFTA and their support of market capitalism. He buys into the nonsense that lack of regulation explains the current financial crisis. He is not a party-line Democrat though. He describes himself as a socialist, and he includes the Democratic party establishment in his roster of evil-doers. He saves his greatest vitriol for the minority who wish to establish a Christian theocracy in the U.S. We know these people exist. We agree with Mr. Bageant that their goals are inimical to democracy and freedom of thought. But they are no more a threat to the body politic than the Klu Klux Klan.

When I was 16 years old, I wrote an essay in high school about the efforts to establish industry in third-world countries. The question we were to write about was whether the Marshall Plan should be expanded to other countries outside Europe. My thesis was that the reason factories create wealth is that they produce a surplus of goods. A factory is not useful unless it produces more shoes than can be sold locally, because it is the sale of those shoes elsewhere that brings in wealth. Therefore I argued, we should not encourage and assist these countries to industrialize. The end result, I predicted, would be that the lower wages paid to workers overseas would mean that all the factories would move overseas. All those surplus shoes and other goods would be sold to us at lower prices that would drive American shoe producers and other manufacturers out of business. American workers would be unable to compete unless they accepted markedly reduced living conditions consequent to the lower wages that would prevail. Although I got an A on my paper, my teacher ridiculed my essay for failing to understand that it was our duty as Christians and Americans to help others achieve what we had achieved.

Mr. Bageant buys into the idea that protectionism is needed to protect American workers. As Smoot-Hawley proved in the 30s, tariffs are counterproductive. As for me, instead of an A, I should have received the Nobel prize in economics, because I was right.

Addendum: I note that some of the reviewers credit Mr. Bageant with bringing to light a class war that most Americans won't talk about. I think that class war has been a central theme of American politics since Teddy Roosevelt thundered about the "malefactors of great wealth," and has only become more explicit with constant Democratic party promises to tax the rich and give the money to the poor.(less)

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Nov 05, 2011

Connie rated it

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Bageant was born and raised in the hill country of Virginia, the 7th generation of Scots-Irish immigrants who came to America in the 1700s.

As a member of the low class, redneck, working-man/subsistence farmer group, quite religious (pentacostal, evangelical Christian), he knows and understands his people as no other. He also is acutely aware of the other class structure of the area, both past and present.

As one of the very few residents who ever made it OUT Of that area a...moreBageant was born and raised in the hill country of Virginia, the 7th generation of Scots-Irish immigrants who came to America in the 1700s.

As a member of the low class, redneck, working-man/subsistence farmer group, quite religious (pentacostal, evangelical Christian), he knows and understands his people as no other. He also is acutely aware of the other class structure of the area, both past and present.

As one of the very few residents who ever made it OUT Of that area and lifestyle, he has a unique perspective. He is educated, as opposed to the barely literate members of his family and neighbor clans; he has traveled to many different parts of the nation and the world, as opposed to the ones who have no outside experience whatsoever.

When he chose to move back to his small hometown of Winchester VA after many years away, he did so in order to try to understand a few things............

In his observations, analysis, and conclusions, he cogently explains why millions of America's underclass continues to vote for the very people that are tromping them further into the dirt, among other things.

Their dependence on the faith is part of this. Their constant parroting of FOX lies and rumors is also. Even though they are sinking, they are loudly 'patiotic' (we're # 1, kick the shit outta them Ay-rabs, etc), and increasingly bigoted and judgmental toward the 'other'.

I have a difficult time summarizing his observations and conclusions, but he has verbalized everything I have personally been observing for years.

He is an excellent writer........it is as if you are sitting in his living room listening to him talk.

This book should be read by everyone all along the political spectrum. Those on the right end are not going to like it, as truth hurts. Those on the left will shake their heads sadly and wonder just how in the devil this nation will ever repair itself.

I just look around at the people that live in our 4 county area and I know that a whole lot of them are no different than the denizens of the south. And I worry. The divide is too wide, the lack of education is too widespread, and the sheep-like behavior is too ingrained.

He (less)

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Nov 05, 2011

James rated it

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From reading this book, I feel more compassion for economically poor, Christian, white America. I have always been somewhat dumbfounded that this segment of our society would vote conservative. Why would they support the very politicians that are stepping on their necks - keeping them uneducated, medically uninsured and underpaid? This book, with wit and empathy, explains why these people feel as they do.

Some of the statistics Bageant presents are skewed or incorrect. And I can't alw...more

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Jul 31, 2011

Agreenhouse rated it

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Why do people do things that are not in their best interest is the biggest question this book raises and tries to answer. More specifically, why do poor people in the southeast vote Republican.
Joe Bageant, who is from the rural South, returns to his hometown and gives multiple reasons, many surprising.

1. There is a small town elite who have made it big in real estate and business. They control the towns like little fiefdoms. They are admired for their success and others st...more

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Jun 16, 2011

Rev. Mysterium rated it

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Shelves: americana, break-the-cycle, blood-on-our-hands, controversial, cultural-studies, current-affairs, favourites, hard-to-put-down, history-factual, inspirational, non-fiction, personable-author, philosophy, political, right-wing-evangelical, sociology, subject-for-debate, well-with-my-soul

This is a sad, but very true view of a segment of our nature. It is ripe with humour and will leave you laughing long after you read it. The author, Joe Bageant who we just lost to cancer this year has a unique way of looking at life and making one relate. Many of the folks profiled in this book will tug at your heart strings. Others will just perturb you to know end, and make you say aloud, "how can people think that way!!??". This is a great telling of the dance between the "...more

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Jun 05, 2009

Tim rated it

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I would have liked this more if it was more grounded. There was way too much that amounted to "the way I see it...". I thought the book was funny and occassionally insightful. The chapter on rural housing was especially interesting. The gun-control chapter came off as too one-sided and easy to figure out (the author is right and you are wrong in such a fundamental way that he isn't even going to bother really engaging with the issue). The bill of rights is remarkably vague and difficul...more

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Jan 24, 2012

Melody rated it

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Reading this book was in a lot of ways like going home. Bageant and I grew up in similar milieus and the stories here were both familiar and infuriating. This book is a blistering indictment of the way the US operates, with a special emphasis on how the working poor are manipulated, deluded, and used. There's so much to digest here, and though some of the information is dated (always a problem with the topical political book), it is well worth reading. The working poor don't get much press aside...more

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Jan 14, 2010

Dan rated it

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Wow, what an engaging book. Written during the years following G.W. Bush's re-election, Joe Bageant sets out to explain to baffled liberals, progressives and intellectuals what exactly went wrong in November of 2004. Why did millions of poor, white, working-class people come out in droves to vote against their better interests?

Over the course of the book's eight chapters, Bageant goes from describing the everyday life of the white, working poor class; the history of the American gun-...more

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Jun 18, 2011

Kevin Farrell rated it

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Joe Bageant writes with sincerity and a bit of humor thrown in to explain the condition of many poor Americans. I don't fully agree with his position that poor people are exploited in this country. I have known too many who have lifted themselves out of poverty to become something more than expected. But Joe does make a detailed case for concern that so many people believe that they are trapped in their situation. He presents the biographies of many individuals and even whole towns that seem to ...more

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Jul 31, 2010

Patrick Sprunger rated it

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Shelves: policy-socioliogy-economics, read-in-2010

Joe Bageant's conversational screed is full of common sense - scads of it. But it is brutally patronizing. His inspired chapters (on theocracy, gun control, and the mid-2000s real estate bubble) are mired in the pedagogue's certainty that he is better than his coarse and mean subjects in every respect.

The author rhapsodizes on the tragedy befallen "his people," meaning the working poor of the American South. Because Mr. Bageant is Southern spawn and can embed into the so...moreJoe Bageant's conversational screed is full of common sense - scads of it. But it is brutally patronizing. His inspired chapters (on theocracy, gun control, and the mid-2000s real estate bubble) are mired in the pedagogue's certainty that he is better than his coarse and mean subjects in every respect.

The author rhapsodizes on the tragedy befallen "his people," meaning the working poor of the American South. Because Mr. Bageant is Southern spawn and can embed into the social fabric with little personal wardrobe alteration, he believes he is an accurate meter of reigning social currents.

The first problem is that the South isn't homogeneous. And even if it were, it would not function as a proxy for the entire American hinterland. The book's thesis is to explain why an increasing number of economically distressed Americans routinely vote against their own interests, almost as though there is a default setting in that frequency. If Mr. Bageant answered this question, he did so only for a small microcosm.

The second problem is that Mr. Bageant is from Northern Virginia and professes to speak for the South. To an Alabamian like myself, Virginia is so far north its lanes should be lined with candy canes and populated with toy making elves. I feel he has no right to equate "his people" to "my people," even though the author clearly considers them one and the same. Even though I, an Alabama Democrat, am as frustrated by "my people" as a Virginia Democrat is about his, I share something even more urgent: The clannish tendency of Southerners to stick up for their own.

Like a family whose black sheep is constantly bringing shame to the family with his carousing and debauchery, woe be to the outsider who throws the first stone of criticism. Cousin Bobby might have wrecked his truck and blown his bond and is now out running around on his old lady all over the county. But we'll be damned if some carpetbagger is gonna walk into town and start tut-tutting about it. Truth is, we don't take care of own very effectively - least of all where politics are concerned - but we will shut out the first yankee who thinks for a minute we're going to listen to his two cents.

I almost wonder if that isn't the heart of the problem. If so, all of Mr. Bageant's homespun paeans to the Redneck Gothic paradigm are in vain. For the whole technicolor redneck diaspora ranging across the hinterland (South included) to sort out its political problems, powerful eurekas are needed from the congregation. As noble as Mr. Bageant's goal is, a charitable liberal Moses is not going to lead the conservative peons from their Republican Egypt. It's going to take one of their own. Since Bageant isn't the One, his work as an embedded reporter should have been impartial observation and analysis. Instead, we got an (enjoyable) narrative of hayseed gonzo and white trash tales from Lake Wobegon. Enjoyable at times, full of common sense, but delivered with a perfectly wrong tone.(less)

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Feb 09, 2010

Steven Salaita rated it

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This is a decent book, but the analysis is pretty simplistic and the portrayal of the "heartland" (Winchester, VA?) too homogenous. Bageant is funny at times and insightful at others. But a few things kept nagging at me as I read:

1) He keeps referring to the working class in Winchester as "my people." Brother, they quit being "your" people over thirty years ago, when you moved on over to the left coast. Class isn't quite like ethnicity in this sens...more

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Jan 29, 2012

Jason rated it

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Similar arguments have been proposed in various media, basically that working class Americans continually vote against their own interests for conservative, big business candidates based on their own political ignorance and the distractions of the issues of abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration. It's a little condescending to believe that conservatives have no idea what they're really endorsing, but this book certainly states the case that it's possible.

The author returns to...moreSimilar arguments have been proposed in various media, basically that working class Americans continually vote against their own interests for conservative, big business candidates based on their own political ignorance and the distractions of the issues of abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration. It's a little condescending to believe that conservatives have no idea what they're really endorsing, but this book certainly states the case that it's possible.

The author returns to his hometown in Virginia and begins hanging out with and interviewing "his people" to find out what motivates them politically. He comes to typical conclusions: that they're motivated by racism and homophobia, that they've been manipulated from spending too much time listening to conservative talk radio and watching FOX News. The most interesting discovery is how much of the working class's conservatism (albeit self defeating conservatism) exists as a reaction to and overcompensation against what they perceive to be snobbishness or, to use a more loaded word, elitism. In this light, liberals, especially the NPR/Whole Foods types, are just as responsible for losing this key voting bloc as the conservatives who've been distracting and manipulating them.

What's good about this book is its almost people's history format. The author interviews real people and uses them as case studies for a variety of issues intertwined with partisan poltics today. What's not so good is the author's tendency to abandon these same case studies to preach for multiple pages about these same issues. It's repetitive and uninteresting. Worse is the author's tendency to prove that the "rednecks" and other "white trash" he consorts with are really his people by trading in crude idioms and down home expressions to the detriment of whatever points he's attempting to make.

Overall, this will appeal to like minded readers but won't win any new converts or open anyone's eyes. Until a political writer on either side is willing to sacrifice pomposity for empathy, conservatives will stick to their Ann Coulters and Glen Becks and liberals will stick with books like this. (less)

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Aug 02, 2011

marcus miller rated it

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Excellent book. Bageant tries to explain "his people" from Winchester, Virginia to his urban, liberal, friends on the coasts who don't understand why many people would so obviously vote against their own interests. Bageant does this with affection, humor, and sharp criticism when needed. Bageant has an obvious affection for his family along with former classmates and friend though even he at times seems mystified by them and the choices they have made. Bageant is an equal opportunity c...moreExcellent book. Bageant tries to explain "his people" from Winchester, Virginia to his urban, liberal, friends on the coasts who don't understand why many people would so obviously vote against their own interests. Bageant does this with affection, humor, and sharp criticism when needed. Bageant has an obvious affection for his family along with former classmates and friend though even he at times seems mystified by them and the choices they have made. Bageant is an equal opportunity critic. He takes on the local power elites in Winchester who espouse conservative ideology while at the same time taking advantage of working class neighbors. He criticizes his liberal friends who reap the benefits of working class labor while making little attempt to understand or to communicate with working class people. Along the way Bageant points out the deficiencies of two party politics, the education system, nursing homes and the church and how all take advantage of working class people or the working poor. He explains the importance of guns and hunting and why arguments about gun control do not resonate with "his people." Though no longer religious he explains why the church remains important in the lives of working class people even though he see's the church perpetuating many of the social problems faced by the working class.
Bageant does offer suggestions for change though unfortunately he died of cancer earlier this year. He argues that liberals need to find ways of communicating with the work class without the condensation and superior attitudes "his people" can easily sense. He calls for changes in the educational system and for people to get involved. At the same time he acknowledges many of "his people" could not find France or Iraq on a map but see no reason why they should. Bageant's criticism of the media and especially television are part of his discussion about the functional illiteracy of a surprising number of Americans. This book is one way Bageant was contributing to the discussion and I would highly recommend it.
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May 14, 2011

Phil rated it

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Shelves: anthropology, nonfiction, politics

A deeply troubling book, Deer Hunting with Jesus by the late Joe Bageant took me into a world I've only glimpsed fromt he window of a moving car, the world of real, working-class Americans and reveals a world that is both unpleasant and mostly delusional. The author, a former working-class guy from Winchester, Virginia, returns to his hometown after years away as an author and journalist in California only to find the town he left has not only failed to move forward in the so-called shared pros...more

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Jun 04, 2010

Sarah Huntington rated it

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I wish that I could give half of this book 5 stars and half of it 1 star. The parts describing the lives of working class Southerners were amazing. Even coming from a similar environment (I was partly raised in semi-rural Alabama) I really just had no idea about some of the details of the "red-state" culture. I would highly recommend this book for that reason. Also, the auther was eerily prescient about the housing bubble, seeing some of the liar loans firsthand. I only gave the book t...more

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Joe Bageant: Born in rural Virginia. After stint in Navy became anti-war hippie, ran off to the West Coast ... lived in communes, hippie school buses... started writing about holy men, countercultural figures, rock stars and the American scene in 1971 ... lived in Boulder, Colorado until mid 1980s ... 14 years in all ... became a Marxist and a half-assed Buddhist ... Traveled to Central America ...more

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“The four cornerstones of the American political psyche are 1) emotion substituted for thought, 2) fear, 3) ignorance and 4) propaganda” — 7 people liked it

“If middle-class Americans do not feel threatened by the slow encroachment of the police state or the Patriot Act, it is because they live comfortably enough and exercise their liberties very lightly, never testing the boundaries. You never know you are in a prison unless you try the door.” — 7 people liked it

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