Summary Of Broken Heartland

In Broken Heartland, Osha Gray Davidson argues the “farm crisis” and the pain it brought to communities in Iowa was only part of a longer decline of rural America brought about by failed governmental policy and the rise of industrial agriculture, which is turning once prosperous small towns into what he terms as “rural ghettos.” He argues that without a substantial course correction rural America will continue to decline and the residents of these rural ghettos, “bitter, desperate, and cut off from America’s cities” will increasingly turn to hate groups. Though Davidson writes as a journalist not as trained historian, Broken Heartland is an important historical work shining a light on growing problems in rural communities and the economic …show more content…
Rural Decatur County has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest poverty in Iowa today, but its poverty rate sits at 21.6%, substantially lower than 30%. Of Iowa’s nine counties with population densities exceeding 100 people per square mile, four (Story, Black Hawk, Woodbury, and Johnson) were among the fifteen counties with the highest poverty rates. Dallas County, which encompassing much of suburban Des Moines, has Iowa’s lowest poverty rate at 6%, but is also the only one of the nine most densely populated counties among the lowest fifteen counties by poverty rate. Polk County, by far Iowa’s most populated, has the state’s 44th highest with 12.3%, just slightly below the state’s rate as a whole. The differences in cost of living, however do not diminish the struggles of the rural …show more content…
He blames the ills of his beloved small town on “greedy farmers, back-stabbing politicians, welfare mothers…” While the “greedy farmers” on Cook’s list may represent some understanding of the economic causes of the crisis, attributing the growth of industrial agriculture as to the greed of farmers is an oversimplification. While the policies of politicians have undoubtedly contributed to the development of “rural ghettos,” Cook remained a staunch Ronald Reagan supporter despite his political party’s worsening of the crisis. Those mothers on welfare have certainly had little role in causing a decline of rural America and the oft-implied race of these “welfare queens.” Cook’s erroneous and idiosyncratic understanding of the causes of his community’s ills, his blaming of these groups foreshadows the book’s discussion of the hate groups who’ve grown by finding scapegoats for rural