61 pages • 2-hour read
Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work
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Themes
Camaraderie
Camaraderie is a theme to which Laskas returns again and again. For the miners, fellowship emerges from a sense of mutual dependency: “Bottom line. Because these fuckholes, every one that goes down there each and every day, depends on the next fuckhole. Bottom line” (30). This is the same kind of brotherhood depicted on the ranch and the oil rig and in driving long distance—looking out for each other, doing a good job because the next person needs you to do a good job, protecting and supporting one another. This is true for the cheerleaders as well, where camaraderie it is about supporting each other, working together as one, and becoming the best each of them can be, to promote the squad as a unit.
The mutual trust and friendship of worker relationships is more complex for the air traffic controllers, who are often asked to choose between union and management, between their own personal desires and needs and that of the people they are protecting. Here, Laskas introduces the idea of a relationship not just among worker peers but also with the people workers are protecting: the pilots, the flight attendants, the passengers.
The idea is complicated again in the section on the gun store, and Laskas depicts a very real divide between those who support the second amendment, and those who desire some sort of restriction on gun ownership. However, there is a sense of camaraderie in each camp, even if they cannot understand the opposing side.
In the section on migrant farm workers, Laskas explores camaraderie through Perez-Fables’s work. His desire to advocate for workers comes from his shared experience with them, growing up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar customs and beliefs. Here the workers do not lack camaraderie and support because of who they are, but because of the conditions in which they work.
American Excess
Laskas argues in the introduction that if we don’t learn about each other and don’t explore the occupations and conditions in which ordinary, average Americans work, we will become spoiled “until expectation sets in privilege and entitlement” (10). Indeed, many of the areas Laskas explores—coal, blueberries, oil, truck driving, guns, trash and sewage—deal with the American consumerism and the desire for more.
There is a sense that it is the gluttony of the average American that drives these occupations, our insistence on cheap fuel or readily available products, that necessitates the way these men and women work. Laskas points out our dependence on these people and the ways in which we ignore their importance and minimize their experiences.
In the landfill section, however, Laskas shifts this concept a bit. Although the landfill depressed her through the sheer size and waste of resources such as the new running shows that were cut up so no one could use them, she is revitalized by the energy and enthusiasm displayed by Joe Haworth, which reinvigorates the tone of the book overall.
If she is angered by the poor conditions endured by the migrant workers, outraged over the low wages of the cheerleaders, infuriated by what the air traffic controllers endure, she is nevertheless impressed overall by the ingenuity of the men and women she meets and their happiness and optimism. If America’s desire is excessive, so too is its enthusiasm and optimistic spirit.
Masculinity
With few exceptions, almost all of the people Laskas encounters while writing this project are men doing stereotypically masculine things: coal mining, cattle ranching, oil drilling. She thus spends a great deal of time breaking down these stereotypes, trying to help the reader see beyond the macho, tough-guy persona many men feel the need to project.
She does this particularly with Foot from the coal mine and TooDogs on the oil rig. Indeed, both men have a habit of pretending they find Laskas’s presence and questions intrusive, even stupid. However, both men reveal that there is much more to them than these surface appearances. Both men, for example, are concerned with being good men, good husbands, good fathers, and both struggle to understand what that means, not just while they’re at work, but also on their own time.
Laskas does meet some women, of course, in the sections on cheerleading and truck driving. Even there, however, ideas of masculinity inform women’s experiences. Adrienne, on whom Laskas concentrates in the cheerleading section, despite her role as cheerleader, is also a construction worker, and in many ways more similar to the coal miners Laskas has met than to her fellow cheerleaders. Similarly, Sputter is female, but also in a typically masculine occupation. Sputter tries to mold herself to fit into this brotherhood, and also values stereotypically masculine traits, like being able to change your own oil.
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