Heartland
Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland.
During Sarah’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country.
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Book details
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Publication date
- 2019
- Print length
- 320 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781501133107
Biography + Memoir + Memoirs
What to Know Before Reading Heartland
In *Heartland*, Sarah Smarsh offers a poignant memoir that delves into the realities of working-class poverty in America. Growing up on a Kansas farm, she reflects on her childhood amidst economic hardship, revealing the struggles faced by those often overlooked in discussions of the American Dream. With clarity and empathy, Smarsh challenges societal misconceptions about class and sheds light on the lives of the poor in America’s heartland.
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About the author
Sarah Smarsh
“The American dream is not a promise; it’s a marketing strategy.”
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