What's the matter with Kansas?: how conservatives won the heart of America

307 Pages·2005·1.75 MB·English

by  Thomas Frank

Praise for What’s the Matter with Kansas?
“Brilliant.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times
“Frank is witty and shrewd, a genial, informative political tour guide of the sort
we desperately need today.”
—Corey Robin, The Washington Post
“Smart, convincing . . . Frank writes with the biting edge of a world-class
polemicist.”
—Chris Suellentrop, Los Angeles Times
“The political book of 2004.”
—The Village Voice
“This is the true story of how conservatives punk’d a nation. Tom Frank has
stripped the right-wing hustle to its core: it is bread and circuses—only without
the bread. Written like a poem, every line in its perfect place, What’s the Matter
with Kansas? is the best new book I’ve read in years, on any subject.”
—Rick Perlstein, author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the
Unmaking of the American Consensus
“Scathing and high-spirited.”
—The New Yorker
“A wonderfully readable book, beautifully conceived, engaging throughout.”
—Davie Denison, The Texas Observer
“A funny, rousing, fascinating cry from America’s heartland.”
—Max Grossman, New York Post
“A thoughtful analysis of Kansas by a native son, peppered with personal
remembrances and an acerbic wit.”
—Shashank Bengali, The Kansas City Star
“A wise reporter and a splendid wit, Tom Frank understands the grassroots Right
as well as anyone in America. He is the second coming of H. L. Mencken—but
with much better politics.”
—Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History
“A brilliant book, one of the best so far this decade on American politics.”
—George Scialabba, The Nation
“Shrewd and pointed . . . irresistibly entertaining.”
—LA Weekly
“Frank is one of the wittiest, most insightful observers of culture and politics
writing today.”
—Jim Miller, The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Hilarious, angry . . . riveting . . . a serious, daring, and largely convincing
exploration of a question most commentators approach with facile generalities.”
—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
“Frank . . . is the most incisive writer on contemporary America.”
—Nick Cohen, The Guardian (England)
“Lively, heartfelt.”
—Jason Epstein, The New York Review of Books
“Bracing reading . . . animated, angry, and without guile.”
—Daniel McCarthy, The American Conservative
“A tour de force . . . witty, precise.”
—Matt Love, The Oregonian
“Frank’s willingness to scold his own side; his irreverence and his facility with
language; his ability to make the connections that other writers fail to make—all
of this puts What’s the Matter with Kansas? in a different league from most of
the political books that have come out in recent years.”
—Kevin Canfield, The New York Observer
“Opinionated, defiant, thought-provoking . . . a wonderful telling of political
change in Kansas on both a personal and social level.”
—Paul Johnson, Lawrence Journal-World
“Mr. Frank re-injects economic-class issues into the debate with sardonic
vehemence.”
—Jerome Weeks, The Dallas Morning News
“Fresh and engaging.”
—Foreign Affairs
“Hilariously funny . . . I promise y’all, this is the only way to understand why so
many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political
interests. And Frank explores the subject with scholarship, understanding,
passion and—thank you, Mark Twain—such tart humor.”
—Molly Ivins
ALSO BY THOMAS FRANK
One Market Under God
The Conquest of Cool
Commodify Your Dissent (coeditor)
What’s the Matter with
KANSAS?
How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
T F
HOMAS RANK
Owl Books
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since 1866
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
www.henryholt.com
An Owl Book® and ® are registered trademarks of
Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright © 2004 by Thomas Frank
Afterword copyright © 2005 by Thomas Frank
Lyrics from “Sex Drive” by Giessmann, Goffrier, Klaus, and Nichols Copyright
© 1979 by The Embarrassment / Embarrassment Songs BMI
All rights reserved.
Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frank, Thomas,
1965-What’s the matter with Kansas? : how conservatives won the heart of
America / Thomas Frank—1st ed.

p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7774-2
ISBN-10: 0-8050-7774-X
1. Conservatism—Kansas. 2. Kansas—Politics and
government—1951-I. Title.
F686.2.F73 2004
978.1‘033—dc22
2004044824
Henry Holt books are available for special
promotions and premiums. For details contact:
Director, Special Markets.
First published in hardcover in 2004 by Metropolitan Books
First Owl Books Edition 2005
Designed by Paula Russell Szafranski
Map by Patrick W. Welch
Printed in the United States of America
5 7 9 10 8 6
Oh, Kansas fools! Poor Kansas fools!
The banker makes of you a tool.
—Populist song, 1892