Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

Journalist Smarsh uses her background growing up in rural Kansas to illustrate the economic plight of the rural working poor. Born in 1980, her childhood was a time of increasing economic instability, especially for farmers. The "farm crisis" of the 1980s caused many who lost their farms to foreclosure to flee to the cities. Her family remained on the farm but lost their construction business. The women had been teenage mothers going back generations, and the author's reminisces are often addressed to the child she consciously chose not to have as a teen, the "child of poverty," in order to break this cycle. By interweaving memoir, history, and social commentary, this book serves as a countervailing voice to J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, which blamed individual choices, rather than sociological circumstances, for any one person ending up in poverty. Smarsh believes the American Dream is a myth, noting that success is more dependent on where you are born and to whom.