Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World

by Art Cullen

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2025

Reviews

[Chris Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just outstanding. Probably the best book I’ve read all year. It’s not a lament, though it is partly that, but trenchant and wise observation of a part of the rural Midwest. And remarkably optimistic — my biggest surprise was reading the sections about farming. Highly, highly recommend. (As an added plus, Art is quite a wit.)

[Paul Deaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art Cullen is the kind of writer I have to watch what I write about him in public. Chances are, unless the Good Lord takes him from us, I’ll run into him in some unforeseen context to experience consequences for writing anything too negative. Not that I would, Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World is a well written narrative with a compelling story. Readers should buy a copy and read it.

I recognize many of the players, like Henry Wallace, Norman Borlaug, Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, Frank Zybach, Aldo Leopold, Ricardo Salvador, and others. These men orbit the sun in an array of stories with which I was already familiar. Thanks to Cullen they were pulled together in a way that has me nodding in agreement. Even the politicians he mentions, Terry Branstad and Tom Vilsack particularly, make their planetary circle around the main theme of Iowa’s extractive agriculture. It’s not a particularly happy story, yet the confirmation bias I experienced created a positive afterglow that lasted the rest of the weekend as I finished the book.

What Dear Marty accomplished is an Iowa narrative, one of many out there, some of which are unknown. We need such narratives. They teach us how to live based on lessons learned or not learned from a tangible past and present. We need that as we live in a time when the U.S. Department of Agriculture set aside billions of dollars to pay for SNAP benefits in the event of a government shutdown. The government shut down, and Republicans refuse to use the money as intended. They instead politicized food insecure people to show they are in control. What are we, as a society, even doing here? I look forward to Cullen’s next column about things like this.

Cullen displays his skills as a newspaper writer in the book. That he could pull together this Iowa story can be attributed to research done to write weekly articles for his newspaper. He shared many of those articles in social media and I read them. This makes the story in the book familiar. It gave him a leg up on anyone else trying to write such an Iowa narrative.

The author makes a lot of sense in the chapter “Finding Center.” There are plenty of things we have in common with people in our neighborhoods, he said. We should just begin pursuing those common interests. This is such common sense, people are missing it. That or they are too busy working more hours, both paid and unpaid, and can’t take their noses up from the grindstone to catch a breath, much less engage in new things. I appreciate common sense. It’s value has diminished in the broader society.

This book reminded me of the late Donald Kaul’s How to Light a Water Heater and other War Stories. In it Kaul reprinted a bunch of his columns in a way that makes it look like they are in a newspaper. The difference between Washington D.C., where Kaul lived, and Spirit Lake is that Cullen actually used his columns to make something new and worth reading. Donald Kaul was no Art Cullen. Many of us are thankful the latter lives in Iowa.

[Connie Thienes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an Iowan and member of the Boomer generation, I found this book very poignant and very relatable. Art Cullen’s writing style is an Iowa treasure.

[Lori Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course I liked We Crapped in Our Nest. I’m liberal, too. Sometimes I grew exhausted with Art’s satire….is he using it now, is he not, what is this lingo or term? Is he trying to be funny, self-deprecating? Sure…made some good points through that means like how his immigrant ancestors came to the Midwest and drove out the Native Americans the same way immigrants are currently crossing boarders and taking our jobs and land from us. Good book. Just sometimes confusing. For me.

[Phliman79 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cullen clearly fancies himself as something of a truth teller, but he lacks any skepticism or even curiosity for the far left positions he takes. Smug tone, unflinchingly parrots talking points from MSNBC. Iowa farmers are racist, of course they are; the world is on "fire"; all big storms are caused by climate change; all dust is caused by the same (he should read about the dust bowl sometime); removing pornography from grade school libraries is "book banning"; socialism is misunderstood by Iowans. Really an awful book. He has raw contempt for conservatives and has no understanding of a conservative mindset. His echo chamber audience may love it, however.

[RoxAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always liked reading anything from Art Cullen so had to read this book. It did not disappoint. Excellent factual analysis of how we got to where we are with so much consolidation of industry that has decimated our rural communities and our environment. Great synopsis of the cultural divide and how it is being used to manipulate us. I was very hopeful by the end as he looks to the future and what is possible for us to recover from the social and economic ills we are suffering from today.

[Bj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book abounds in the Midwestern small town changes that have happened over the last 50 years. As a result the country's economy has suffered and the politicians with big business have taken hold and led us to a dangerous place.

[Sharon Falduto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, mildly curmudgeonly, interesting about the history and future of Iowa and cities like Storm Lake, and fairly depressing about the state of affairs (with a brief glimmer of hope about how things COULD get better).

I always enjoy reading Art Cullen's editorials.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

We lost Iowa Nice to Minnesota. If they take our breakfast pizza, my neighbor, who has always loved Iowa, will weep.

[Jill Wheeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights into what is happening in rural America. How did we get here, how do we move forward.

[Harper Rhodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Horrible title.

[L. Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be a “must read” by everyone in rural America.