Broken Heartland: The Rise of America’s Rural Ghetto

By Osha Gray Davidson review by Alison Baker

For many Americans the words “Midwest” and “Heartland” conjure up images of strong, proud farmers living wholesome lives amidst the vast fields of corn, soybeans and wheat. But contrary to this idyllic image is a life of poverty and isolation for many Midwestern farm families. By 1980, farming expenses skyrocketed to the point that the number of farmers had decreased by two-thirds, causing economic, environmental and psychological repercussions to rural communities. In Broken Heartland, freelance journalist Osha Gray Davidson examines the devastating impact the farm crisis has had on the people of “the land of milk and honey.”

Davidson begins in Mechanicsville, Iowa, where he spent three years while researching and writing Broken Heartland. Infused with interviews with farmers, social workers, government officials, and scholars, Broken Heartland takes the reader into a world of unknown suffering. Davidson recounts how the farm crisis developed into its present state and explains why the situation in the “rural ghetto” may be as grave as the problems of any inner-city slum. Daily hunger and threats of losing century-old family farms are only the tip of the iceberg for members of Midwestern rural communities. Davidson discovers that they also must face the crises of depopulation, soil erosion, deterioration of education, hate groups, and crippling debt. A main problem highlighted in Broken Heartland is the social disintegration farm families encounter due to cultural tendencies and geography. Often, the very real plight of rural ghettos is overlooked in favor of the more visible urban ghettos. In the 1996 edition of his book, Davidson discusses the growth of hate groups in the impoverished areas of the Midwest. In the final chapters, Davidson offers his solutions to the farm crisis and says that if the challenges are met, “…the Golden Age of rural American will lie not in our past—as our myths have it—but in our future.”

Bravely and empathetically, Davidson’s Broken Heartland paints a human face on the silent, unseen crisis ravaging America’s Heartland. Almost a decade after this compelling book was published, one is left wondering if Davidson’s dreams for the broken communities of the Midwest are any nearer to becoming reality.