Habits of the Heartland - 9780801476433

"Lyn C. MacGregor shows how communities are made in a rural place and, through the three cultural groups identified (Alternatives, Main Streeters, and Regulars), gives important insight into the production of community as well as community identities and individual and collective agency. Habits of the Heartland is a real contribution to the fields of community studies, rural studies, and cultural studies."---Cornelia Flora, lowa State University

"A rich, multilayered ethnographic portrait of a Wisconsin town emerges from Macgregor's keen insights drawing on two years spent living there and working as a bartender. She uniquely focuses on local patterns of consumption to show that ordinary shopping or entertainment choices are motivated by a distinctive sense of community among each of its factions, allowing us to see how multiple cultures coexist within the shared boundaries of this small place."---Sonya Salamon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In Habits of the Heartland Lyn C. MacGregor investigates how the residents of Viroqua, Wisconsin, population 4,355, create a small-town community together. Macgregor lived in Viroqua for nearly two years. During that time she gathered data in public places, attended meetings, volunteered for civic organizations, talked to residents in their workplaces and homes, and worked as a bartender at the local American Legion post. Viroqua has all the outward hallmarks of the idealized American town---the kind of place where local merchants still occupy the shops on Main Street and everyone knows everyone else. On closer examination, one finds that the town contains three largely separate social groups: Alternatives, Main Streeters, and Regulars. These categories are not based on race or ethnic origins. Rather, social distinctions in Viroqua are based ultimately on residents' ideas about what a community is and why it matters.