Crisis Politics and Everyday Life in "Middletown”

This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception will begin at 4:30 PM. Please visit here to register.

This draft book chapter explores the interplay between politics and everyday life in Muncie, Indiana, the city first identified as “Middletown” by social researchers a century ago. It is based upon the Everyday Life in Middletown archive, a collection of day diaries and other material provided by volunteers that documents daily activities, thoughts, and feelings over the past decade, amid the rise of Trumpism, a pandemic, and escalating racial tensions. Here, the authors use this archive to trace a circulating sense of political crisis that intersects with—and at times disrupts—the day-to-day lives of one set of ordinary Americans.