Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work

This is not a place for people, this is not a place for people, this is not a place for people.

That thought came to Laskas while she was descending deep into an Ohio coal mine, and it likely came to her several times more during her research into this collection’s nine essays that profile people

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working at jobs relatively unknown to the general public. There are coal miners; migrant farm workers; NFL cheerleaders; air-traffic controllers; gun-store sales clerks; beef ranchers; oil-rig workers; long-haul truck drivers; and garbage landfill workers.

I love anything workplace-based and was excited to snag this. But between the time I won it and received it, I happened to read the essay about the truck driver in O Magazine ... and was disappointed. So disappointed that I mostly put off reading the book for a year. Having finished it now, I rate it “okay,” 3 stars; easy to read, portions interesting, large portions I wanted to skip.

As the subtitle suggests, these are profiles of the workers and their lives/lifestyles, with less about the actual work/workplace. Only two primarily profile a woman (the cheerleader and the truck driver), and the cheerleader piece is terrible and seems wholly out of place in this collection that’s otherwise about America’s infrastructure (as does the gun-store piece, although it was my favorite). Though not exactly the same concept, I recommend Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed much more.

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I read and enjoyed two earlier books by Jeanne Laskas, and looked forward to reading this one. I was disappointed in this book for many reasons, although I don't regret the time spent reading it. It's not a bad book, but it seemed unfocused to me. The sub title of this book is "from Coal Miners to

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Cowboys, an extraordinary exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work". One chapter is about the NFL cheerleaders for the Cincinnati Bengals. Hidden maybe, making this country work – not so much. Another chapter concerned the sale of firearms and ammunition. Within the chapter is the fact that there are 13 million hunters in the US. I'm not going to take a side on whether or not people in the firearms industry "make this country work", but surely the number of people involved in the manufacture and sale of guns and ammunition is too large to be called "hidden". In that chapter she says 'Where I come from, people don't talk about the right to bear arms all that much; we just don't". And that's the problem in general with the book – what's hidden and what's not hidden all depends on your own circumstances and perspective. Many people will see a chapter about truckers, for example, and be puzzled why that profession is considered "hidden".
I also found that the book was inconstant in its structure. Some chapters contained a lot of detail about the profession or industry, others just focused on one "colorful" individual employed in an industry. I don't know if she meant to show that the professions she profiled particularly attracted "characters" or not. I'll still follow Laskas as a writer, but in spite of, not because of, this book.

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I accidentally requested this on the Early Reviewers Program, and since LT couldn't cancel the request after the book had been granted, I passed the ARC to a friend of mine whom I thought would appreciate it. The rating and review are hers:

HIDDEN AMERICA is what I consider to be a well-written,

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interesting, and informative book. Jeanne Marie Laskas has really done a service to not only those groups of "hidden Americans" about which she has written, but also to us as American consumers -- to make us aware of those who work hard to make our lives as good as they are.

Laskas has written eight chapters about hard-working groups of Americans who make a difference in the quality of our lives, but to whom is rarely given recognition for the contributions they make to our daily living. She writes of coal miners, long-distance truckers, air traffic controllers, migrant farm workers, landfill employees, oil rig workers, cattle ranchers...those American workers who labor is "hidden" but would be greatly missed (quickly and with howling lamentation) if they as groups did not show up for work. She does a good job of making the reader think about how these humble professions are the backbone of our American way of life and comfort.

The book actually contains nine chapters, but I still don't understand why the chapter on NFL cheerleaders is included. I'm pretty sure that NFL cheerleaders don't serve me or have any affect on my quality of life in the way that a coal miner or an air traffic controller or a migrant farm worker does. Even gun sellers (an interesting and somewhat amusing chapter considering the author's own struggle with gun-ownership) have more of an affect on my life than NFL cheerleaders, and I personally don't even own a gun.

This is not a dry read, discussing merely the particulars of each labor situation chronicled. Laskas followed individual workers for weeks, getting to know their families, friends, hopes and dreams. These workers have names and faces; they are real. They breathe. They bleed.

Overall this was a good read. It reinforced in my mind that truly "no man is an island," and that we are much more interdependent on one another than we might recognize. Truly a profession does not have to be visible to be vital.

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This is a great collection of essays in search of a theme. I give it 5 stars for the writing and minus 1 (almost 2, it annoyed me that much) for the title.

Yes, most of these stories are of "hidden america" and "people who make this country work" but there are glaring exceptions. Cheerleaders, no

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matter how hard they work, are not hidden nor making the country work. The chapter on gun salesmen was really about guns, not the salesmen. Either the book started in a different direction and the title sounded too good to pass up or someone decided it was too small and needed to shoehorn in two more chapters, regardless of the relevancy. It's like how a movie producer would publish a book?

This is all very frustrating because the profiles were so interesting, with the oil rig, air traffic control and truck driver chapters being the standouts.

Buy the book, rip off the cover, forget the title and enjoy.

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The book reviewed is an uncorrected proof sent by the publisher.

I especially wanted to read Hidden America since I used to enjoy reading Jeanne Marie Laskas’ columns in the Washington Post Magazine and the topic of the book sounded very interesting.

In this well-written book, Hidden America, Ms.

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Laskas tells the stories of workers in nine different industries: coal mining, migrant laborers picking blueberries, NFL cheerleading, air traffic control, gun selling, ranching, oil drilling, long distance truck driving, and the operation of landfills. As a whole these industries have an important impact on our lives since they relate to such things as providing food and heat and waste removal -- things which we tend to take for granted. Ms. Laskas spent time with workers in their workplaces, and learned first-hand about the life, working conditions, and the work philosophies of the people involved. She excels in describing the people themselves, and realistically portrays the experiences of the workers and her own reactions to spending time in their working environments.

I personally found some of the stories more interesting than others, which is not surprising. Also, most of the occupations described are mainly male occupations; the only primarily female one was the NFL cheerleading. In the migrant worker chapter, Ms. Laskas describes a family of a father and sons. However, she does include a black female truck driver in the chapter about long distance truck driving.

Versions of most of the stories appeared earlier in GQ (formerly Gentlemen’s Quarterly) and one previously appeared in the Smithsonian in a different format.

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I really liked this. It was a very interesting look into the lives of people whose lives are completely unlike mine.

In the tradition of Studs Terkel, revealing stories about people who impact our lives who most give little thought to: the coal miners and oil riggers who produce the energy we consume, the migrant workers who pick the fruit vegetables we eat, the air traffic controllers who keep the airplanes we

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fly in from crashing, and the gun shop owners who sell firearms to the lunatics who commit mass public shootings.

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I thought this book was terrific. I am familiar with Laskas' writing and like her sense of humor and honesty. She explores jobs that I have never considered in any way. Her essays about migrant workers, coal miners, and oil rig workers were particularly moving.

Each chapter in this book was a fresh revelation, as Ms. Laskas took a closer look at some of the industries we take for granted: coal, oil, trucking, air travel, waste management. My favorite chapters were definitely the beginning and closing chapters, although each one had interesting facts and

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stories to tell. My only real complaint is that sometimes I felt like I got left hanging - what happened to that person? But overall, I felt a great sense of respect and gratitude for the hard working men and women who keep our country running and working and fed.

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The book, Hidden American is a great idea - tell the stories of people who work in often obscure, yet necessary places doing the work that helps all of us every day. What struck me most after finishing was the skewed gender perspective the book offered. Only 2 chapters out of 9 focused on female

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workers. Of the 2, one woman had a traditionally male job (truck driver), and the other woman was a cheerleader. The only female workers with traditionally female jobs were the cook in the migrant camp and the cheerleaders. The cook's place was in the periphery of the story of the migrant workers. The chapter on cheerleaders was interesting, but it belongs in another book. That being said, I did enjoy several of the chapters, and the book allows the reader to meet some interesting characters while learning more about the engines that allow us to enjoy the lifestyle we have.

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In Jeanne Marie Laskas book Hidden America; she strives to bring to light those workers we rely for everyday functions, such as turning on a light or throwing away trash. Often, this sort of book is more of an expose of an industry. The terrible working conditions in the coal mine are emphasized.

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It leads to an investigation. The coal mine is then shut down and everyone cheers. Another way to look at that story is that a lot of people are out of work. Those workers are the focus of Laskas’s book Hidden America.

With a focus on jobs that directly affect everyone, but no one sees, Laskas brings out a fresh new perspective. Coal workers, blueberry pickers, cattle ranches, cheerleaders, air traffic controllers, and more are interviewed in this book. She doesn’t just interview them, but she genuinely cares about the people she speaks with and really brings out their character. Her work is a combination of Mary Roach and Barbara Ehrenreich. She doesn’t come from a judgmental perspective, but really inhabits what it feels like. Sometimes it takes her too far, like continuing to go into the coal mine even though she has all the information she needs. Furthermore, she ends up purchasing two guns at an Arizona gun shop. (In an interesting contrast, she thinks she has purchased a gun a child could use when in Arizona, but when she returns to Pennsylvania, all she can think about is that she has a GUN in her purse.) She details this emotion exquisitely. She really understands why someone would work in a coal mine or want to buy a gun.

Even though many of the topics were fascinating, such as the coal mines or the gun shop, some of the areas she covered were not all that interesting. She could have gone deeper on some of the topics and one would wonder if she chose some areas based on convenience and access. Overall, it’s a fascinating look at how the people we rely on everyday but certainly take for granted

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An amazing look at jobs we don't take the time to consider and how without these jobs are our day to day experiences would be much different.

An eye-opening book that takes the reader on a cross-country tour of places and people previously unknown, unseen, or simply ignored. These are profiles of people and jobs that are an important part of the nation's economy, but which don't get the recognition they deserve. It should be on reading

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lists for high school and college students and would be great for bookclub discussions.

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Have you ever wondered where your trash goes when the trucks haul it away? Or how it is that your electrical outlets are powered? What has to happen in order for you to enjoy that juicy steak? How does your local Wal-Mart keep its shelves so fully stocked? Those mysteries and more are revealed in

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Hidden America. The author seeks to describe and humanize several processes that people take for granted in everyday life, and she does a remarkable job. Laskas doesn’t just explain the process, she introduces us to the people involved in making them happen, which lends much more weight and human interest to the essays. By the end of each chapter, the reader is invited to genuinely care about these people whose work is so important to keep this country running. Just like you don’t really think about how your brain is making your heart beat or your lungs breathe or that paper cut heal, the average person does not frequently consider these essential processes. Personally, I expected to be depressed by coming to know about the dangerous and unpleasant circumstances in which some people are forced to work in order to make my life easier. However, it seems that almost all of these people actually like their jobs! It made me surprised and almost hopeful. The book ends on a particularly encouraging note, with the most seemingly disheartening thing of all: a landfill. Hidden America is an important book for any responsible citizen to read, and it’s an enjoyable experience as well.

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For some reason, I thought that “Hidden America” would be similar to “Nickel and Dimed”…unearthing the true stories behind some of the least glorious jobs that keep our country running. But this account of the lives of migrant workers, to professional football cheerleaders to air traffic

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controllers is much less emotional. Jeanne Marie Laskas does an excellent job of keeping the politics out of the story. (As best she can…when talking about immigrants and union workers…the politics are always simmering away in the background.)

“This book has no new slogans to add to the shouting, offers no charged rhetoric to the cause of the 99 percenters or the 1 percent. If Hidden America takes any position at all, it is necessarily from the sidelines, underneath, above, or deep inside. It speaks from these vantage points – captures the quiet, nuanced conversations that the shouting and the sloganeering drown out. Hidden American doesn’t have and argument to make. Hidden American is busy. Hidden America is tired.”

These are important stories to tell. Many of the people profiled in this book are the ones that keep this country running. They pick our food, they land our planes safely. Because Americans (in general)… “We have work to do, papers to sign, mortgages to make. We are civilized. We don’t meet the cattle whose briskets we eat, we don’t know the shape or color of the hands that pick our lettuce. Peaches, or celery. If the disconnect between us (the people who demand) and them (the people who supply) says anything about us, it’s probably not flattering.”

I feel like I learned a great deal from this book. From interesting facts (I was STUNNED to find out how very little professional cheerleaders make) to thought provoking ways of looking behind the scenes. I’ve always thought that coal mining would be an unbearably hard profession, but Laskas gives the small details of the day-to-day life of a miner that really drive the point home. She also makes side comments the way I might in an unknown situation…with some of the same results.

“He gets on the elevator, plunges five hundred feet down – fifty stories, just – down. The elevator opens up and everything is white. That’s the first weird thing. White?”

“They just paint this opening part white to cheer everyone up?” I said to Foot the first time I saw it. He didn’t even dignify that guess with a response. “It’s like, a joke?” I said. “Irony? A little humor to start your day before you move into black?”

“He said, “I think you’ll find there are no aesthetic choices, nor is there irony, in a coal mine.”

This is a good collection of differing professions, professions that few of us think about and even fewer of us do…but ones that are integral to our way of life.

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This book is a snapshot of nine different professions in America that are rarely thought about by the general public. It's a look at the jobs, and the people who do them, that covers a spectrum as far ranging as landfill workers in California, to a black female truck driver in Ohio.

I found the

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writing informative, humorous and thought provoking. I thought the author treated the people, and their stories with an unbiased journalism that is sometimes lacking in today's tell all "reality" society. These workers are real, and the author does a fantastic job of taking the readers along with her for the ride. I felt throughout the book that I was right there with her as she interviewed and observed these people.

My only criticism was her choice to include the cheerleader story. While I understand her desire to include a look at a wide variety of workers, after reading about them, I felt the cheerleaders', with their lofty goal of being "Cheerleader of the Week," and their story, was just a little fluffy in comparison to the other eight stories.

Hopefully, thanks to this author, the next time I select my produce from Wal-Mart, fill up my car with gas, or throw away my garbage, I will try to remember, and be thankful for the people who make it possible for me to live in the manner I do.

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Hidden America is a compilation of stories about the “people who make this country work”. I enjoyed the glimpse into the lives of a wide range of people but I felt that the stories suffered from brevity. I also do not understand the inclusion of the NFL cheerleaders. They are not crucial to

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making this country work; nor are they necessary for the success of NFL games. Another small negative was the introduction; it took material from the first chapter and so when I began the book it felt repetitive. That said, the book made me think about the industries that were included in a new way. I especially enjoyed the stories about the miners, the oil riggers, and the landfill crew. The author made an interesting choice to bring some of her personal experience into the chapter on the woman truck driver. This was a departure from the rest of the book but I think it brought an added depth to the story. Hidden America is a book that is worth reading but falls somewhat short of the mark.

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Fascinating to read, but I almost wanted each chapter to be it's own book. I felt cheated out of the stories. Very interesting.