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  • Published: 21 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9780525558897
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $40.00

Storm Lake

Change, Resilience, and Hope in America's Heartland



From a Pulitzer-winning newspaperman, an unsentimental ode to America's heartland as seen in small-town Iowa--a story of reinvention and resilience, environmental and economic struggle, and surprising diversity and hope.

"A reminder that even the smallest newspapers can hold the most powerful among us accountable."—The New York Times Book Review

Watch the documentary Storm Lake on PBS.

Iowa plays an outsize role in national politics. Iowa introduced Barack Obama and voted bigly for Donald Trump. But is it a bellwether for America, a harbinger of its future? Art Cullen’s answer is complicated and honest. In truth, Iowa is losing ground. The Trump trade wars are hammering farmers and manufacturers. Health insurance premiums and drug prices are soaring. That’s what Iowans are dealing with, and the problems they face are the problems of the heartland.

In this candid and timely book, Art Cullen—the Storm Lake Times newspaperman who won a Pulitzer Prize for taking on big corporate agri-industry and its poisoning of local rivers—describes how the heartland has changed dramatically over his career. In a story where politics, agri­culture, the environment, and immigration all converge, Cullen offers an unsentimental ode to rural America and to the resilient people of a vibrant community of fifteen thousand in Northwest Iowa, as much sur­vivors as their town.

  • Published: 21 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9780525558897
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $40.00

Praise for Storm Lake

Praise for Storm Lake:

"With a self-effacing, homespun honesty...Cullen makes an eloquent case that community newspapers are integral to the fabric of small towns..[and] that diversity is keeping Storm Lake alive. Many Latino, Laotian and Vietnamese families work in the packinghouses. Cullen argues that these families have thrown a much-needed life preserver to Storm Lake's economy."--StarTribune

"An impassioned, significant book from a newsman who made a difference."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"[A] memoir that gracefully illuminates the challenges facing the American heartland. Composed of political history, tales of civic controversies, and human interest stories, the subject matter is elevated by Cullen's passion into parables relevant to all Americans . . . a window into small-town America."--Publishers Weekly