The notion of a deep and enduring divide between thriving, affluent, progressive urban areas and declining, impoverished, conservative rural areas has become a central trope—if not the central trope—in American culture today. In May 2017, theWall Street Journal proclaimed, “Rural America Is the New Inner City”.1 Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, the narrative of urban revitalization and rural decline has only gained steam.But, in reality, this narrative fails to capture the full complexity of economic life in America. In fact, parts of rural America are thriving, even as other parts decline; just as parts of urban America continue to lose population and face economic decline as other parts comeback.
America’s Urban-Rural Divide: Myths and Realities
