Habits of the Heartland: Small-Town Life in Modern America

Abstract

Habits of the Heartland: Small-town Life in Modern America By Lyn C. Macgregor Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010. ? + 270 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8014-4836-2; $22.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8014-7643-3.This is a very readable, first hand account of the makeup of community in the small town of Viroqua, Wisconsin, written by a sociologist who lived there for two years, starting in 2001. Through personal interactions with many people and social elements of the town, the author identifies three distinct community groups that exist in and around the area. Statements from casual encounters and visits with people make the text come alive, and give the reader a real sense of everyday life in a small Midwest town. The work is not a history or nostalgic look at rural communities but rather focuses on the contemporary state of affairs. As the author suggests, her observations present a snapshot in time; this town, like others is always changing.The book is also a useful view of how a small town succeeds, avoiding decline in modern day mega commerce. For Viroqua the arrival of Walmart was a wake-up call for action to keep the downtown alive. The federal and state Main Street Program of the 1990s offered a positive incentive for the town to remain economically viable.Viroqua is not a "typical" small town, nor even small in comparison to the thousands of rural towns that never grew beyond a 500 population, and have lost most or all their businesses in modern times. The history of Viroqua as a county seat, location of a private elementary school, and early efforts to bring in industry, make the town special rather than ordinary. That was part of the reason the author chose to study it. Regardless of its unique character, the town and social groups that make it share many similarities with other rural communities of the Midwest.Students of material culture will appreciate the perspective outlined here. As the author points out, the community is as much a part of the material culture of a place as are its buildings and artifacts. One needs to have some knowledge of the people and social groups that comprise it to better understand the built landscape they created or use. The book offers us the insights to do that.Emphasis throughout the book is on the personal experiences and observations of the author, rather than on social theories used to explain what community is. Instead, as the author states, her purpose was to understand how community is made, while remaining "agnostic" about what it is. Rather than trying to fit the community into existing theories she tests their current validity and whether they apply to Viroqua.The book is a good introduction to rural, small town life, the positive and negative interactions of residents living there and what separates the social groups and what draws them together. It is not a history of the area but rather a glimpse of contemporary society and the community it creates or lives with.Part one of the book identifies the three social groups that make up the community as a whole: Alternatives, Main Streeters, and Regulars, each with unique value systems and ways of living. Groupings such as these can probably be found in most small towns in one variation or another, and have existed for a long time. …