An interesting-looking book is soon to hit the shelves, called The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America. Though it's not out yet, the authors' website (which is so extensive as to be a media-hype-machine all by itself) has extensive summaries of the chapters. With their political agenda supported by what looks like copious facts, figures & maps, they aim to paint a decisive political picture of the country that shows what the "Metro" (Democrat city-folk of the coasts & Great Lakes states) people need to do to regain control of the country from the "Retro" (rural conservative folk of the south, midwest, & mountain states) people. If anyone's gotten an early copy, I'd be interested to hear what you think of it--it's unclear from the summaries whether the propaganda-to-stats ratio will be favorable.

I like this kind of propaganda very much. Its explanatory value is near zero, but it's great for cocktail parties and bull sessions. I hope to get some good insults from it as well, since hillbilly and redneck are pretty much overused, mostly by losers anymore.

Posted by: Conrad on August 24, 2004 11:30 AM

I have begun reading this book, and can say that is is rather informative, with plety of graphs and charts giving various statistics defining the differences retro and metro states. It is not too preachy of it obvious liberal foundation, and does not deign to insult its conservative opponents. Arguably, one of the best descriptions of the division of America in recent history.

Posted by: Christopher on September 1, 2004 11:16 AM