Blue in a Red State

A Survival Guide to Life in the Real America

Engaging stories and innovative strategies from left-leaning people surviving in right-leaning communities across the country, from the founder of the national Living Liberally network

“Politicians want to pick his brain, women want to play with his ponytail; as social movement movers and shakers go, Drinking Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs is a virtual whirling dervish of democratic dynamism.” —AlterNet

Imagine if you felt out of step with every other member of the parent association
at your kid’s school, your quilting circle, or even your workout group. What if casual conversations revolved around Fox News and the decline of American values? How would you feel if you were afraid to put a political bumper sticker on your car or had to think twice about what liberal posts you liked on Facebook? These are just some of the experiences shared by liberals across twenty states and five time zones who tell their stories with honesty, warmth, and humor.

Most of us have to “talk across the aisle” once or twice a year—when we’re seated next to our conservative out-of-town uncle at Thanksgiving, say. But millions of self-identified liberals live in cities and towns—particularly away from the East and West Coasts—where they are regularly outnumbered and outvoted by conservatives.

In this uplifting and completely original book, Justin Krebs, the founder of the national Living Liberally network, speaks with and tells the stories of atheists, vegetarians, environmentalists, pacifists, and old-fashioned liberals—a term he is intent on rehabilitating—from Texas to Idaho, South Carolina to Alaska. Krebs weaves these stories together to create a provocative and rollicking taxonomy of strategies for living in a diverse society, with lessons for every participant in our great democratic experiment.

News and Reviews

Salon

Read an excerpt from Blue in a Red State on Salon

Bob Herbert's Op-Ed TV

Watch Bob Herbert's interview with Justin Krebs

The Matthew Filipowicz Show

Justin Krebs discusses his new book in an interview on The Matthew Filipowicz Show

Kirkus

Kirkus reviews Blue in a Red State

Goodreads Reviews