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

Viroqua, a city with a population of 4435, is located in the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin and is well known for expert education, quality health-care, and a burgeoning organic movement. With a focus on how people create community in small-town America, Habits of the Heartland invites readers to learn how residents narrate important aspects of growing up in (or moving to) and now living in Viroqua.

Author Lyn Macgregor lived in Viroqua for two years to conduct this study of the community. She attended town meetings and worked at the American Legion Hall, establishing rapport and building relationships that afforded her access to information and individuals. She includes multiple voices from three foci populations—Regulars, Main Streeters, and Alternatives—and she illustrates how people were distinctly connected to one group versus the others. To create these group names, Macgregor took her cues from the people in the community, and she further categorized the people she interacted with and interviewed according to two other main elements: ethics of agency (or individual choice) and logic of commitment (or where and how one participates in community life). The Regulars, whom Macgregor describes as people who wanted a simple life without drawing attention to themselves, had grown up in Viroqua. The Main Streeters, described as the busiest people in town, include people involved with the town’s businesses and organizations; some had grown up in Viroqua and others were new arrivals. The Alternatives, described as a kinder, gentler counterculture, had all moved to Viroqua from someplace else. Macgregor explains that these were not the only groups of people in town; however, they were the most visible.

As an oral history document, Habits of the Heartland is weak because it provides few primary source narratives and only short quotations from the participants; rather, Macgregor continually presents her own interpretations. For instance, sample narratives from each group describe reactions to businesses in the community. While these short narratives show how the groups are differently positioned on this topic, lengthier quotations would have afforded readers an ability to make their own interpretations rather than reading Macgregor’s analyses. The Oral History Association notes on its website, “Oral history interviews seek an in-depth account of personal experience and reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their story the fullness they desire,” a standard that might have greatly enhanced the text (www.oralhistory.org). Macgregor’s cursory narratives do not meet this standard, and she provides the reader with only partial information about the participants in her project. Who participated and for how long is never addressed. Although Macgregor provides a table, “Summary of the Social Groups in Viroqua,” the table does not mention what percentage of people participated from each identified group. Moreover, the interview material is not archived anywhere, and thus is inaccessible to other researchers.

Community studies are most valuable when they describe the full range of residents in the community. These narratives would have been enriched by including peripheral populations in the Viroqua area. Diverse groups that are not well documented and often disenfranchised would have added more perspective to the community. One such example is the presence and history of migrant workers in the Viroqua area, especially given the rise of the organic movement and the growth of market farms. Had Macgregor worked at Harmony Valley Farm or Organic Valley, two different nationally known organic cooperatives, and included stories from those farmers and the region’s migrant workers, she might have substantiated her assumptions and given more texture to her study. Including information about the Amish, another group whose presence is felt in Viroqua, likewise would have more accurately completed the complex tableau of Viroqua’s vibrant community.

One additional shortcoming of the book is that the study failed to recognize how diversity, especially socioeconomic status, played a role in residents’ daily lives. There is no reason to believe that all people within a...