Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope *Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • With stark poignancy and political dispassion Tightrope addresses the crisis in working-class America while focusing on solutions to mend a half century of governmental failure. This must-read book from the authors of Half the Sky “shows how we can and must do better” (Katie Couric). "A deft and uniquely credible exploration of rural America, and of other left-behind pockets of our country. One of the most important books I've read on the state of our disunion."—Tara Westover, author of Educated Drawing us deep into an “other America,” the authors tell this story, in part, through the lives of some of the people with whom Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon. It’s an area that prospered for much of the twentieth century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About a quarter of the children on Kristof’s old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. While these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write about, ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have given us a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore. Read more
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Why Must Read Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope?
Tightrope, like other books exploring poverty in America, is at its best in describing human interest stories with real empathy and compassion. Kristof, who himself grew up in rural America, describes the lives of his schoolmates and neighbors in a way only someone from such a background could possibly express. Understanding that awful mix of tremendous disadvantage and poor life choices that make up the lives of the generationally poor alone makes the book worth reading. What’s disappointing is that Kristof and WuDunn combine this powerful portrayal with rather standard solutions from the liberal perspective. In a curious mix of bad reasoning, the authors blame the lack of progress on combatting poverty in America on the policies of Nixon, Reagan and other sundry Republicans. The lack of an adequate communities, loss of family supporting blue-collar jobs, recidivism, chronic drug use and other aspects of poverty can all be solved by big government. In fact, the effort to shrink the federal government is the authors’ primary reason for America’s backwards progress on poverty. It’s fine to hold a typical liberal perspective but there are many pages spent on describing policy solutions that are well-known. Obvious inconsistencies with this theory, such as Nixon’s creation of Medicaid, are simply not discussed. Even Clinton’s welfare reform gets scarce mention! In short, one has one very good book powerfully evoking the lives of the desperate poor together with a boring book of rather tired and banal policy recommendations that could be pulled verbatim from the Democratic 2020 platform. In the end, I was beaten over the head too many times by the need for big government to enjoy this book. But those with a more liberal tilt might find this more palatable. Recommended for the narrative—best left up to the each reader to assess the validity of its policies.
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