Caught in the Middle

Download or read book Caught in the Middle written by Richard C. Longworth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-08-09 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Midwest has always been the heart of America-both its economic bellwether and the repository of its national identity. Now, in a new, globalized age, the Midwest is challenged as never before. With an influx of immigrant workers and an outpouring of manufacturing jobs, the region that defines the American self-the Lake Wobegon image of solid, hardworking farmers and factory hands-is changing at breakneck speed. As factory farms and global forces displace old ways of life, the United States is being transformed literally from the inside out. In Caught in the Middle, longtime Chicago Tribune reporter Richard C. Longworth explores the new reality of life in today's heartland and reveals what these changes mean for the region-and the country. Ranging from the manufacturing collapse that has crippled the Midwest to the biofuels revolution that may save it, and from the school districts struggling with new migrants to the Iowa meatpacking town that can't survive without them, Longworth addresses what's right and what's wrong in the region, and offers a prescription for how it must change-politically as well as economically-if it is to survive and prosper.