These small-town universities deliver better value by a country mile.
Rural America
Posted inNovember/December 2025
How the Democrats Can Play Offense
The November/December issue is here.
Posted inNovember/December 2025
Rural Revival
With the onset of the Great Depression, the United States appeared on the verge of political revolt in rural areas. For half a century, rural people had felt increasingly marginalized by changes in American society and the economy and ignored by political leaders. A farm crisis in the 1920s inflicted further pain. By 1933, with […]
Posted inPodcast
How Regional Inequality Explains Our Polarized Politics
Nearly 1 in 6 Americans lives in a “distressed” community. Where they live and what they experience could explain a lot about the rise of Trump.
Posted inEducation
Don’t Fall for the School Closure Temptation
The first weeks of fall at Arlie Boggs Elementary School in rural Eolie, Kentucky, are usually filled with back-to-school routines. New names line the cubbies, and the hallways gleam with a fresh coat of wax. The sounds of a new school year fill the classrooms. But not this year. Today, Arlie Boggs sits empty. The […]
Posted inEducation
How AmeriCorps Kept Young Talent in Rural Communities
Trump’s cuts to the federal service program eliminated thousands of positions that provided career pathways in struggling small towns across America.
Posted inBooks
The Democrats’ Rural Problem
The party can’t prevail unless it gets its rural numbers up, but the problem is more complex than the authors of a new book allow.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
How Internet Service Providers Fuel Inequality
It’s time for Democrats to push for universal access to broadband.
Posted inPolitical Animal
How to Mobilize Rural Progressives
The first step is to bust some myths about rural voters and communities.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Some Coronavirus Hot Spots Are in Rural America
For too long we assumed that this was an urban pandemic. That is all gone now.
