What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America | 
 enlarge | Author: Thomas Frank
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
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Rating:  378 reviews
Sales Rank: 12183
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 080507774X
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.1033
EAN: 9780805077742
ASIN: 080507774X
Publication Date: May 1, 2005
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Amazon.com Review
The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically. To much of America, Kansas is an abstract, "where Dorothy wants to return. Where Superman grew up." But Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas. --John Moe
Product Description
With a New Afterword by the AuthorThe New York Times bestseller, praised as "hilariously funny . . . the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political interests" (Molly Ivins)Hailed as "dazzlingly insightful and wonderfully sardonic" (Chicago Tribune), "very funny and very painful" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "in a different league from most political books" (The New York Observer), What's the Matter with Kansas? unravels the great political mystery of our day: Why do so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests? With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank answers the riddle by examining his home state, Kansas-a place once famous for its radicalism that now ranks among the nation's most eager participants in the culture wars. Charting what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"-the popular revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment-Frank reveals how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans.A brilliant analysis-and funny to boot-What's the Matter with Kansas? is a vivid portrait of an upside-down world where blue-collar patriots recite the Pledge while they strangle their life chances; where small farmers cast their votes for a Wall Street order that will eventually push them off their land; and where a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs has managed to convince the country that it speaks on behalf of the People.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 373 more reviews...
 there is a lot wrong with Kansas December 1, 2008
Author explores how Kansas has been dumbed down enough to vote against their own interest. The big media will shove footage of two female pop stars kissing at an awards ceremony: The folks in Kansas will vote to lower their taxes and the taxes of the media executives.
How did Americans get so gullible? the way people communicate eventually changes the way they think and process information. progressive populism arose when many small town farmers, small town merchants, and small town mill workers communicated in person and by local newspapers.
Whatever else was involved, the results are the same. We now have a population that can be steered into voting for whichever candidate gives the most lip service to not liking gays, abortion, consumers of hip hop, or "taxes". They then vote for rich people who cut their own taxes and raise payroll taxes on most people, outsource manufacturing jobs, subsidize agricultural policies that drive most farmers out of business, and flood the air waves with lowest common denominator trash consumerism.
Kansas conservatives just may succeed in getting abortion outlawed some day. by then they will have to sell themselves into indentured servitude just to pay the cost of having a baby born at a hospital. Congratulations.
Spot on Analysis October 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As somebody who grew up in Kansas and then subsequently moved to New York, I can honestly say that Thomas Frank accurately captures the ideology prevalent in Kansas when it comes to national politics, the narrow minded scope of political understanding there, and the reasons why folks in midwestern states like Kansas are easily misled by the Republican party into literally voting against their own economic interests in the name of "values."
 After paying, never received it!!!!!! October 14, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm very disappointed! After paying for it to be sent from a seller in the marketplace (bordee books), I have not received it and the seller is (in my opinion) giving me a hard time about getting me a copy of it. Their solution was to "wait and see if it comes. Get back to us in a week or so." If it was possible, I would give ZERO stars! Think twice about using this seller!
Middle America Revealed October 10, 2008
This is a must read for political junkies, especially Democrats and liberals who can't comprehend why rural middle class Americans continue to vote Republican when doing so is clearly not in their best economic interests. Using Kansas as perhaps the best example of this phenomenon, the author does an excellent job of analyzing the cultural, political, and economic forces that have caused middle America to shift strongly to the right over the past 40 years. From this book, I came away with a deeper understanding of American politics, especially the Reagan conservative revolution that forged an unlikey but successful alliance of Wall Street capitalists and social conservative evangelicals to form the modern Republican machine.
liberals: vote for us cause you're an idiot September 7, 2008
1 out of 24 found this review helpful
I read this book a little over a year ago in response to a suggestion
from a left wing blogger. I suppose to be fair, I should go back and
reread the book in order to do a better review. But I'll try to "wing
it" by memory, which may be a real challenge because the book is
quite forgetable.
Basically the entire premise revolves around the idea that you morons out
there don't know what's good for you. So, the thing to do is to vote for
the left because they know best.
Whoever you are, left or right, liberal or conservative- you probably
deserve a little more credit than that. You'll vote for who you think is
best; best for you or for your country. I'll make a deal with liberals:
don't call me stupid for voting conservative, and I won't call you stupid.
I may think you're pretty stupid, but I'll keep that to myself.
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