April 27, 2012
About 500 feet underground, journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas was crawling through a coal mine in eastern Ohio, feeling humiliated because here was a $27 billion industry which touched her life every time she flipped a light switch, and she knew almost nothing about it. Hidden America intends to remedy some of that. This is only one hidden world. Others that Laskas explores: an Alaskan oil rig, a migrant labor camp in Maine, the air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport, a beef ranch in Texas, a landfill in California, a long-haul trucker in Iowa, a gun shop in Arizona, and the Cincinnati Bengals cheerleaders. Cheerleaders? Yes. They, too, are hidden America, and you will be amazed by what she tells you about them.
These are the people who touch our lives, but most of us never think about them, except in passing. All that is about to change.These are the stories of the people who make America work — people we barely notice, if at all, and yet we’re dependent on them.
These are the people who touch our lives, but most of us never think about them, except in passing. All that is about to change.These are the stories of the people who make America work — people we barely notice, if at all, and yet we’re dependent on them.