A01=J. Tom Mueller
Author_J. Tom Mueller
Capital
Capitalism in the United States
Category=JBSC
Category=JPQB
Category=KCP
Critical Geography
Critical theory
Diversity in rural America
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Geographic political polarization in the United States
History of rural America
Industrial transitions in the United States
Labor mobility
Reparations for Black Americans
Rural
Rural America
Rural decline
Rural demography
Rural economic development
Rural employment
Rural infrastructure
Rural poverty in the United States
Rural sociology
Rural Sustainability
Rural well-being
Single-payer healthcare
Student loan forgiveness
Sustainable Rural Economic Development
The false freedom of labor
Tribal restitution
United States
Universal Basic Income
Universal social policy
Urbanization of the United States
Utopian thinking
Product details
- ISBN 9781469691527
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 21 Oct 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Rural America is at a crossroads: either it will manage to sustain itself long-term, or—as current trends suggest—it will continue to disappear through depopulation and urbanization. There have been calls for economic redevelopment, but even with these proposals, J. Tom Mueller argues that policymakers, politicians, and academics rarely make a clear case for why rural America matters and is worth saving in the first place. In this provocative book, Mueller meets these issues head-on by presenting a critique of conventional economic development efforts while also articulating why rural America is worthy of preservation.
The Case for Rural America outlines the actions necessary to save our rural places and the people who live there. By suggesting approaches that would benefit urban populations as well as rural—such as establishing a universal basic income and implementing single-payer healthcare—Mueller offers a nuanced understanding of the complex needs of rural America while providing solutions that would benefit us all.
The Case for Rural America outlines the actions necessary to save our rural places and the people who live there. By suggesting approaches that would benefit urban populations as well as rural—such as establishing a universal basic income and implementing single-payer healthcare—Mueller offers a nuanced understanding of the complex needs of rural America while providing solutions that would benefit us all.
J. Tom Mueller is assistant professor of population health and director of the Kansas Center for Rural Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
