Worlds apart : poverty and politics in rural America / Cynthia M. Duncan.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Blackwell: rigid classes and corrupt politics in Appalachia's coal fields : "Good rich people" and "bad poor people" ; Blackwell yesterday: developing Appalachia's coal fields ; The families that run things ; The politics of work in the mountains ; Blackwell's have-nots" scratching a living up the hollows ; Blackwell's haves: the good life on Redbud Hill ; Bringing change to Blackwell ; Blackwell twenty years later: hunkering down with family -- Dahlia: racial segregation and planter control in the Mississippi Delta : Dahlia's two social worlds ; Work in Dahlia: creating and maintaining the plantation world ; Class and caste in the Delta ; White planters, politicians, and shopkeepers ; Leadership in the Black community: the old and the new "Toms" ; Dahlia twenty years later: new jobs and new politics / with Gemma Buckley -- Gray Mountain: equality and civic involvement in northern New England : A blue-collar middle-class mill town ; Participation and investment in the 1990s ; The big middle "continuum" ; Difficult times ahead: putting civic culture to the test ; Gray Mountain twenty years later: holding on to a blue-collar community -- Social change and social policy : Cultural and structural causes of persistent poverty ; Class and politics in rural communities ; Equality, democracy, and social change ; Policies to encourage mobility and build civic culture ; Policy for poor people in poor places -- Appendix : Table I. Social and economic indicators for Blackwell, Dahlia, and Gray Mountain ; Table II. Social and economic indicators for Central Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, Northern New England, and the United States ; Table II. Explanatory notes / Jessica A. Carson -- A comparison between chronically poor and transitioning rural counties / Jessica Ulrich-Schad.

First published in 1999, Worlds Apart examines poverty through the stories of real people in rural New England, Appalachia, and the Mississippi Delta. In this new edition, Duncan returns to her original research, interviewing some of the same people as well as new key informants. The work provides powerful new insights into the dynamics of poverty, politics, and community change.--Back cover.