The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America

Sarah Kendzior

Apr 2018 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Sarah Kendzior

About this audiobook

NEW YORK TIMES and MIBA BESTSELLER

From the St. Louis–based journalist often credited with first predicting Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

"A collection of sharp-edged, humanistic pieces about the American heartland...Passionate pieces that repeatedly assail the inability of many to empathize and to humanize." — Kirkus

In 2015, Sarah Kendzior collected the essays she reported for Al Jazeera and published them as The View from Flyover Country, which became an ebook bestseller and garnered praise from readers around the world. Now, The View from Flyover Country is being released in print with an updated introduction and epilogue that reflect on the ways that the Trump presidency was the certain result of the realities first captured in Kendzior’s essays.

A clear-eyed account of the realities of life in America’s overlooked heartland, The View from Flyover Country is a piercing critique of the labor exploitation, race relations, gentrification, media bias, and other aspects of the post-employment economy that gave rise to a president who rules like an autocrat. The View from Flyover Country is necessary reading for anyone who believes that the only way for America to fix its problems is to first discuss them with honesty and compassion.

“Please put everything aside and try to get ahold of Sarah Kendzior’s collected essays, The View from Flyover Country. I have rarely come across writing that is as urgent and beautifully expressed. What makes Kendzior’s writing so truly important is [that] it . . . documents where the problem lies, by somebody who lives there.”—The Wire

“Sarah Kendzior is as harsh and tenacious a critic of the Trump administration as you’ll find. She isn’t some new kid on the political block or a controversy machine. . . .Rather she is a widely published journalist and anthropologist who has spent much of her life studying authoritarianism.” —Columbia Tribune

Ratings and reviews

Came here from the author's excellent/terrifying podcast Gaslight Nation. The defining theme of this essay collection is that the rich have rigged the system to their benefit at all levels, from academia to government to corporations. Some of the subject matter such as the 2007-08 housing bubble pairs well with Stiglitz's magnum opus Price of Inequality, among many other works. I wish fewer of Flyover's examples were drawn from the academic/non-profit world -- the argument that unpaid internships are only for people that are already wealthy doesn't bear so much repeating -- but clearly this is something Kendzior is passionate about.

Sarah Kendzior's insight and eloquence are on full display in each of these essays. Her reading of her words, alarming as they are, is evenly and thoughtfully voiced. An inspired and inspiring survey of a 21st century United States with decisions to make and actions to take

About the author

Sarah Kendzior is best known for her reporting on St. Louis, her coverage of the 2016 election, and her academic research on authoritarian states. She is currently an op-ed columnist for the Globe and Mail and she was named by Foreign Policy as one of the “100 people you should be following on Twitter to make sense of global events.” Her reporting has been featured in many publications, including Politico, Slate, The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Chicago Tribune, TeenVogue, and The New York Times.