"Timely . . . [the collection] paints intimate portraits of neglected places that are often used as political talking points. A good companion piece to J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy."-BooklistThe essays in Voices from the Rust Belt "address segregated schools, rural childhoods, suburban ennui, lead poisoning, opiate addiction, and job loss. They reflect upon happy childhoods, successful community ventures, warm refuges for outsiders, and hidden oases of natural beauty. But mainly they are stories drawn from uniquely personal experiences: A girl has her bike stolen. A social worker in Pittsburgh makes calls on clients. A journalist from Buffalo moves away, and misses home.... A father gives his daughter a bath in the lead-contaminated water of Flint, Michigan" (from the introduction). Where is America's Rust Belt? It's not quite a geographic region but a linguistic one, first introduced as a concept in 1984 by Walter Mondale. In the modern vernacular, it's closely associated with the "Post-Industrial Midwest," and includes Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. The region reflects the country's manufacturing center, which, over the past forty years, has been in decline. In the 2016 election, the Rust Belt's economic woes became a political talking point, and helped pave the way for a Donald Trump victory.But the region is neither monolithic nor easily understood. The truth is much more nuanced. Voices from the Rust Belt pulls together a distinct variety of voices from people who call the region home. Voices that emerge from familiar Rust Belt cities-Detroit, Cleveland, Flint, and Buffalo, among other places-and observe, with grace and sensitivity, the changing economic and cultural realities for generations of Americans.

CONTENTS"Introduction: Why the Rust Belt Matters (and What It Is)" by Anne TrubekGROWING UP"A Girl's Youngstown" by Jacqueline Marino"The Kidnapped Children of Detroit" by Marsha Music"Busing, a White Girl's Tale" by Amanda Shaffer"Moundsville" by David Faulk"North Park, With and Without Hate" by Jeff Z. Klein"Love and Survival: A Flint Romance" by Layla MeillierDAY TO DAY IN THE RUST BELT"A Middle-Aged Student's Guide to Social Work" by Dave Newman"Fresh to Death" by Eric Woodyard"Rust Belt Heroin Chic" by Ben Gwin"Will Blacks Rise or Be Forgotten in the New Buffalo?" by Henry Louis Taylor Jr."Can Detroit Save White People?" by Aaron Foley"Cleveland's Little Iraq" by Huda Al-MarashiGEOGRAPHY OF THE HEARTLAND"A Night at the Golden Lion Lounge" by John Lloyd Clayton"Family Bones" by Ryan Schnurr"The Fauxtopias of Detroit's Suburbs" by James D. Griffioen"Pretty Things to Hang on the Wall" by Eric Anderson"King Coal and the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum" by Carolyne Whelan"Seed or Weed: On the Evolution of Chicago's Bloomingdale Trail" by Martha Bayne"This Is a Place" by Kathryn M. Flinn"That Better Place; or, the Problem with Mobility" by G. M. DonleyLEAVING AND STAYING"Losing Lakewood" by Sally Errico"Notes from the Expatriate Underground" by Margaret Sullivan"Confessions of a Rust Belt Orphan; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Akron" by Jason Segedy"Bathtime" by Connor CoyneContributorsAcknowledgments