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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 More...

7 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2007

Christy rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2007

Dave rated it:

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...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2008

Todd rated it:

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.) More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Billrogers rated it:

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 More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2007

Malcolm David rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Crawfords444 rated it:

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...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Jason rated it:

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...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2009

Lauren rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 24, 2008

Rachel rated it:

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...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2008

Tam rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2008

Regulator rated it:

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...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2008

Jesse rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2007

Rod rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Tyler rated it:

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 More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Matt rated it:

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 More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Connie rated it:

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 More...

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Nov 06, 2011

James rated it:

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:

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:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 05, 2009

Tim rated it:

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:

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...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 14, 2010

Dan rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 More...

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Feb 09, 2010

Steven rated it:

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...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Jason rated it:

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 More...

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Aug 02, 2011

marcus rated it:

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 More...

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May 14, 2011

Phil rated it:

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 rated it:

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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