Laskas begins the book with a quote from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass; she then describes the coal mine in Ohio that was her inspiration for the concept of Hidden America. The conditions horrify her, and the coal miners she meets are upset that she does not know what their lives are like. She begins thinking of all the people who work to keep America going, “the people who pick our vegetables, grow our beef, haul our stuff to the marketplace, make our trash disappear” (3), as well as occupations unique to America, like the NFL cheerleader or the gun store clerk.

She notes with surprise that some of the people she spoke to over the course of her research did not care if others knew their stories, and some did not want others to know about them at all. Furthermore, the things she wanted this book to do “were constantly shifting objectives” (5). The things that she learns and the people that she meets change her life in various ways, both large and small.

Finally, she makes it clear that she is not advocating a return to traditional values. Indeed, she is not trying to advocate for anything at all—she simply believes that all of us should know these stories, and that these people exist outside of the shouting and arguing so common in American politics: “Hidden America doesn’t have an argument to make.