30 used & new from £0.02
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Hardcover)

by Thomas Frank (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


29 used from £0.02 1 collectible from £13.96
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover Order it used
Paperback (Reprint) 2 used & new from £11.49

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

What's the Matter with America?: The Resistible Rise of the American Right

What's the Matter with America?: The Resistible Rise of the American Right

by Thomas Frank
4.4 out of 5 stars (8)  £5.49
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America

by Joe Bageant
3.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.69
The Right Nation: Why America is Different

The Right Nation: Why America is Different

by John Micklethwait
4.4 out of 5 stars (7)  £7.18
The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008

The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008

by Paul Krugman
3.9 out of 5 stars (11)  £6.48
Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

by George Lakoff
£4.85
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Metropolitan Books (Jun 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0805073396
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805073393
  • Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.5 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 856,637 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
politics
progressive politics
thomas frank
liberal
social class
backlash
us
political insight
kansas
cultural politics

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
60% buy the item featured on this page:
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
What's the Matter with America?: The Resistible Rise of the American Right
22% buy
What's the Matter with America?: The Resistible Rise of the American Right 4.4 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.49
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America
8% buy
Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America 3.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£5.69
The Right Nation: Why America is Different
6% buy
The Right Nation: Why America is Different 4.4 out of 5 stars (7)
£7.18
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Candid Kansas, 20 Jul 2005
By Ian David Curry "Legal Eagle" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Paperback)
Take a trip to the political section of a US bookstore and you throw yourself into the middle of the battle raging between left and right. Who is a big fat idiot? Who is destroying America? Who buys Ann Coulter? Like all things polemics are not created equal. Some books simply exist to affirm the prejudice of the reader, and thus the liberal will chuckle along to Michael Moore and Al Franklin, and the conservative will nod solemnly to Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. Some seem to be more reasoned, such as Molly Ivins. This is where Thomas Frank's new books comes in.

What's The Matter With Kansas is clearly hollering from the left side of the fence. The title alone betrays the fact that the author thinks there is something 'wrong' with the state of Kansas continually voting Republican. What is novel and refreshing is that he tries to explain why a state that is overwhelmingly blue collar or rural would vote for the party that seems to betray those interests.

It comes down to an interesting contrast. Social and economics issues have somewhat gone out of the window in an increasingly prosperous and financially secure USA. Instead the moral agenda has seized the upper hand, and this has gripped the hearts of the voters of what was once a radical state. Instead of worker protection, minimum wages and New Deal farm reforms the voters support evangelical churches, anti-abortion and shudder at the prospect of gay marriage. All of this is fertile ground for an increasingly conservative Republican party.

Thomas Frank portrays his home state with a degree of empathy that would be lacking in the tomes written by those 'east cost, latte sipping liberals'. Like Ivins's love for her home state of Texas, Frank does not necessarily suggest that the voters in Kansas are stupid or ignorant. He does, however, suggest that they are strongly voting against their own interests in support of the rabidly conservative aims of the moral wing.

His platform would suggest that today's Republican party has formed a quid pro quo arrangement with the christian coalition, support for the big business and low taxes goes hand in hand with policies to affirm the moral basis of America. It is ironic that the two form such easy bed fellows. The rapacious excesses of WorldCom, Enron and other corporate scandals are evidenced by Frank, and sit uneasily with Christian principles.

But then again I am even worse than an east coast, latte sipping liberal. I'm practically a pinko Commie from Europe!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Economic Populism vs. Cultural Populism, 30 Oct 2006
By Mr. Sw Radford (Hampstead, London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Paperback)
Very well-written account of how Kansas used to be a hotbed of left-wing radicalism that has been seduced into the Republican fold through the use of accusations of 'cultural elitism' against 'liberals' and 'Democrats'. He goes onto advocate the use of economic populism to take on this cultural populism of the Right, and makes 'liberal' use of the example of William Jennings Bryan.

Overall, a very good read and highly recommended although he does a poor job of saying whether this economic populism would be desirable in and of itself rather than as a political ploy: rather than having a go at NAFTA, would it not be more sensible to help poor people adapt to the creative destruction of open markets, as suggested in The Pro-growth Progressive by Gene Sperling? Does Economic nationalism induce a broader less tasteful nativism? There is also the small matter that most Democrats who have run on an economically populist ticket have lost: Bob Shrum ran Al Gore's 'People Against the Powerful' campaign, and several similarly-themed previously, and none have won.

However, regardless of the book's shortcomings in terms of prescription, it's description of political life in Kansas is as necessary as it is compelling: what the Republicans are doing is working, but we need to find a cure that is not as bad as the illness.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject














i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.