from coal miners to cowboys, an extraordinary exploration of the unseen people who make this country work Laskas, Jeanne Marie 1958- creator text biography nyu New York G.P. Putnam's Sons c2012 2012 monographic eng

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318 pages ; 24 cm. This book looks at the remarkable men and women whose low-profile accomplishments contribute to the running of the nation, from coal miners and oil rig workers to migrant laborers and air traffic controllers. Five hundred feet underground, the author asked a coal miner named Smitty, "Do you think it's weird that people know so little about you?" He replied, "I don't think people know too much about the way the whole damn country works." This book intends to fix that. Like John McPhee and Susan Orlean, the author dives deep into her subjects and emerges with character-driven narratives that are gripping, funny, and revelatory. In this book the stories are about the people who make our lives run every day, and yet we barely think of them. The author spent weeks in an Ohio coal mine and on an Alaskan oil rig; in a Maine migrant labor camp, a Texas beef ranch, the air traffic control tower at New York's LaGuardia Airport, a California landfill, an Arizona gun shop, the cab of a long haul truck in Iowa, and the stadium of the Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleaders. Cheerleaders? Yes. They, too, are hidden America, and you will be amazed by what this book tells you about them: hidden no longer Underworld : Hopedale Mining, Cadiz, Ohio -- Hecho en America : Migrant Labor Camp, Cherryfield, Maine -- G-L-O-R-Y : Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio -- Traffic : Air Traffic Control Tower, LaGuardia Airport, New York, New York -- Guns "R" us : Sprague's Sports, Yuma, Arizona -- Beef : R.A. Brown Ranch, Throckmorton, Texas -- The Rig : Pioneer National Resources Oil Rig, Oooguruk Island, off the Shores of Alaska's North Slope -- Sputter : I-80, Exit 284, Walcott, Iowa -- This is Paradise : Puente Hills Landfill, City of Industry, California. Jeanne Marie Laskas. "Published simultaneously in Canada"--Title page verso n-us--- Laskas, Jeanne Marie 1958- Travel United States Laskas, Jeanne Marie 1958- Viajes Estados Unidos Working class United States Social conditions Clase trabajadora Condiciones sociales Estados Unidos Working class United States Biography Clase obrera Aspectos sociales Estados Unidos Working class United States Social life and customs Manual work Social aspects United States Subculture United States United States Description and travel Estados Unidos Descripciones y viajes United States Social conditions 1980- Estados Unidos Condiciones sociales 1980-2020 United States Social life and customs 1971- Estados Unidos Vida social y costumbres 1971- HD 8072.5 L345h 2012 305.5/620973 9780425267271 042526727X 2012025457 DLC 120710 20261014193219.0 118349 eng