Jon will talk about a book called Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning On the American Right: A Journey To the Heart of Our Political Divide by Arlie Russell Hochschild.  His interpretation of politics and the book are summarized: "As the bitterness of the campaign and election revealed, there is a great disaffection in the country. The sense of alienation is palpable; the anger profound. In a book that has proved prescient, Arlie Hochschild spent five years in the conservative bayou region of Louisiana. It is an area whose populace suffers from environmental degradation, poverty, and a host of health concerns. As a liberal sociologist teaching at Berkeley, she realized that too many Americans didn't know or understand the disaffection fueling the anger of many on the conservative right. The result is a revealing look at an America too little seen and too often ignored. Ironically, the research and writing were largely completed before the current election cycle. Yet it illuminates and explains much of what the pundits and pollsters missed."

Jon graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in English and Classics and a Masters in Water Resource Management that lead to a career in environmental management that included stints at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, The Council of State Governments, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With the break up of the Soviet Union, he was tapped to lead the US assistance program for the three Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia).  He was then assigned to the American Embassy in Denmark as the regional environmental Attache with responsibility for the three Baltic States as well as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. After retiring, he went to work at The Book Stall as a part-time bookseller. Today, he is full-time manager of the store.