Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

This is a must read book about crystal meth, drug trafficking, Big Agriculture and the decline of rural America. All in about 250 pages of text. Quite a work of investigative journalism and an amazing piece of writing, which should be yet another call to action for us. Reding convincingly ties the growth of meth addiction to consolidation of agricultural and food processing companies into a few mega-corporations, corporate lobbying and the decline of small town America. This book helped me understand what meth is, why it is so prevalent and what some communities have done to combat it. ( )

As other reviewers have caught, there are a few factual inaccuracies in Methland, inaccuracies that are easily verified had the author rechecked his facts. The most obvious ones being that the University of Northern Iowa is not in Cedar Rapids but in Cedar Falls, and that Iowa City is not the largest city in Iowa. Some Iowans may find them annoying, but to the typical reader a couple of mistaken facts hardly detract from the enormity of the book. Serious reviewers will look past them to its heart: the sociological and economic destruction of a small town, a town that can be anywhere in the country, but in this book is Oelwein, Iowa.

More to come. I have a lot to say about this book. In the meantime, you can read the first chapter online here:
And">http://methlandbook.com/Methland_prologue.pdf

And you may be interested in reading the following reviews:
Nathan Lein, Assistant Fayette County Attorney, and one of the main people that the author spent the most time with while researching the book:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3AXNHOLTUIEXF/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3AXNHOLTUIEXF

Walter Kirn, the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/books/review/Kirn-t.html ( )

Interesting but ultimately disappointing. I was expecting something different. ( )

4 stars for all the facts about meth,crystal meth, and the process that puts it into user's hands. The of this drug, from when it was commonly advertised and prescribed to its current status as a link between Mexican drug cartels and the American industrial food business is fascinating at the same time it is scary as hell. The author spends too much time trying to put a warm fuzzy face on small town USA, though, considering he makes the point early on that this is an problem for any size community. He started off researching from the small town point of view and never let's go, dragging in updates on people who have nothing new to add. ( )

4 stars for all the facts about meth,crystal meth, and the process that puts it into user's hands. The of this drug, from when it was commonly advertised and prescribed to its current status as a link between Mexican drug cartels and the American industrial food business is fascinating at the same time it is scary as hell. The author spends too much time trying to put a warm fuzzy face on small town USA, though, considering he makes the point early on that this is an problem for any size community. He started off researching from the small town point of view and never let's go, dragging in updates on people who have nothing new to add.