BOOKMONGER
Class conflict in the rural Northwest
Two books reflect
on divisive issues
This week’s
books
Two new books tackle the theme of
rural gentrification, focusing on Pacific
Northwest communities.
The books come from two sociology
professors at neighboring universities —
Jennifer Sherman at Washington State Uni-
versity and Ryanne Pilgeram at the Univer-
sity of Idaho.
In “Dividing Paradise,” Sherman tells
the story of a long mountain valley in the
shadow of Mount Rainier that is home to
four small towns. In keeping with profes-
sional sociology standards, Sherman uses
pseudonyms for all of the individuals she
interviewed in the study — and in this
case, also extends that practice to the com-
munity names.
The first white settlers came to “Para-
dise Valley” over a century ago to make a
living in land-based or extractive indus-
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‘Dividing
Paradise’ by
Jennifer Sherman
University of
California Press
— 288 pages —
$29.95
‘Pushed Out’ by
Ryanne Pilgeram
University of
Washington Press
— 216 pages —
$30
tries. But in more recent decades, as
those activities declined in profitabil-
ity, locals increasingly have engaged in
amenity-driven economic growth — pro-
visioning the leisure class that comes to
the mountains in search of recreation and
relaxation.
This has resulted in a split commu-
nity of old-timers and newcomers — with
starkly different sets of values, skills and
expectations. Those who exert privilege
are blind to it and those who are forced
to serve privilege are resentful of it. The
social divide is growing in these small
towns and, after embedding in the commu-
nity for the better part of a year, Sherman
captured the underpinnings of the polariza-
tion that is taking place — not just in the
valley, but in the nation overall.
Her Idaho colleague, Pilgeram, arrives
at similar findings in her new book,
“Pushed Out.”
Pilgeram goes back to the little town
where she grew up. For much of the 20th
century, Dover, Idaho, relied on the local
timber mill as its chief employer. But when
the mill shut down in 1989, there was no
economic engine to replace it. The towns-
folk further came to realize that the mill
owners shirked their responsibility for an
infrastructure that they’d all depended on.
The town’s only salvation appeared to
be the development of the former mill land
into a planned community featuring picket
fences and fancy streetlights for city folks
seeking a vacation home.
But the result was higher taxes and
more stress for the original townsfolk.
In clean and engaging prose, Pilgeram
describes the heartache of a disenfran-
chised population, while also delivering a
tough scholarly analysis: “What happened
in Dover is not an aberration but rather the
product of a capitalist system reorganiz-
ing its exploitation of human and natural
resources.”
And now the coronavirus pandemic
has only hastened rural gentrification, as
city-dwellers flee to bucolic surroundings.
These two books take a hard look at an
overall system that rewards privilege at the
cost of diminishing others. Both Sherman
and Pilgeram demonstrate that this system
is not inevitable but merely a human con-
struct, with flaws that could be corrected.
But that would have to begin with peo-
ple acknowledging one another’s humanity.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and pub-
lishers of the Pacific Northwest. Contact
her at barbaralmcm@gmail.com.