What's wrong with the US Mid-West?

In "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism," former Chicago Tribune reporter Richard C. Longworth tells heartland stories, lots of them, and compiles them in a passionate, probing and painfully honest book. There is little room for sentimentality here. Yes, the outsourcing of jobs and the export of industries has played a major role in recent years. But in Mr. Longworth's account, heartland workers are torpid, poorly trained and resistant to change. Politicians and bureaucrats are narrow-minded, territorial and selfish. Farmers are addicted to subsidies and beholden to mega-corporations.