Sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country -- a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets -- among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident -- people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children. Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream -- and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from "liberal" government intervention abhor the very idea?.

Part one: The great paradox -- Traveling to the heart -- "One thing good" -- The rememberers -- The candidates -- The "least resistant personality" -- Part two: The social terrain -- Industry: "The buckle in America's energy belt" -- The state: Governing the market 4,000 feet below -- The pulpit and the press: "The topic doesn't come up" -- Part three: The deep story and the people in it -- The deep story -- The team player: Loyalty above all -- The worshipper: Invisible renunciation -- The cowboy: Stoicism -- The rebel: A team loyalist with a new cause -- The fires of history: The 1860s and the 1960s -- Strangers no longer: The power of promise -- "They say there are beautiful trees" -- Appendix A: The research -- Appendix B: Politics and pollution: National discoveries from ToxMap -- Appendix C: Fact-checking common impressions.