Hollowing out the middle The rural brain drain and what it means for America

Based on interviews with high school graduates from the late 1980s and early 1990s and 18 months of residence in a small Iowa town, sociologists Carr (Rutgers-New Brunswick) and Kefalas (Saint Joseph's Univ.) present a firsthand account of the brain drain from rural areas and the effect on those left behind. Very compellingly, the authors present four groups of graduates as they make the transition to adult life: achievers, stayers, seekers, and returners. More importantly, they document the difficult challenges facing small rural places as the graduates cope with a changing economic reality caused by globalization of the structure of agriculture and the manufacturing sector. The project was part of the MacArthur Foundation-supported Network on Transitions to Adulthood. Well documented and referenced and informed by the rural sociological literature, the book makes a real contribution to the understanding of small-town life in the heartland and provides an interesting counterpoint to Richard Florida's ideas about the "creative class." The last chapter presents suggestions to solve the dilemma of helping young people adjust to a changing world through higher education and preserving the small towns that produce them. This should be required reading for rural sociologists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. A. A. Hickey Western Carolina University

Thousands of small towns in rural America are being depopulated, or "hollowed out." The brightest and most ambitious young people, dubbed "Achievers" by husband and wife researchers Carr and Kefalas, abandon the heartland for greater challenges and rewards in cities. Their less talented and/or less ambitious brothers and sisters, the "Stayers," remain in places like smalltown Ohio, where the ethnographers surveyed 275 graduates of a local high school. Deft and detailed case studies bring the population to life, making the poor prognosis heartrending. While the authors insist that "with a plan and a vision" smalltown America can be revitalized, evidence to the contrary seems overwhelming. Globalization, the growth of agribusiness and the Achievers' hunger for "cultural vibrancy" suggest that the brain drain will not be replaced with a "brain gain"-despite the addition of scattered "Returners" and immigrants. Some analysts suggest that remaining human populations be relocated from the Great Plains and the land be restored to a vast Buffalo Commons, a "venue for bison and prairie restoration"; others foresee the region becoming a bastion for sustainable agriculture and green energy. Whatever the future may hold, the authors alert readers to this major change with clarity and compassion. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Carr (sociology, Rutgers Univ.) and Kefalas (sociology, St. Joseph's Univ.) offer a compelling and well-documented discussion of the regrettable youth exodus from our nation's Heartland (their capitalization). Under the auspices of the MacArthur Foundation, the authors, husband and wife as well as research partners, had lived with their young children for a half-dozen years in "Ellis," the pseudonymous Iowa town that is their book's focus. Through case studies, they identify what draws achievers away from the Heartland's small towns, draining them of vision, and they suggest how those who flee might be convinced to stay. Yet while they argue that the area can be revitalized, they, too, were happy to reassure nine-year-old Camille that "Mommy and Daddy are, at last done" with their book, meaning that they can leave Iowa. Apparently, their distress at the Midwest "brain drain" was not enough to compel them to remain there themselves. VERDICT Deftly researched and written, this book is highly recommended for sociologists, educators, policymakers, and anyone concerned about the future of this country.-Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.