States of Mind

In this journey across America, Herzog reports on the state of 18 tiny towns and villages. "States of Mind" goes beyond the traditional travel narrative, presenting the small town as microcosm and the hamlet as allegory.

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Brad Herzog, a cynical member of so-called "Generation X", wanted to find out if that cynicism was justified. So he and his wife, Amy, emptied their bank accounts, packed everything into a Winnebago, and set a course for a fabled America they weren't sure still existed.What began as a literal search for the small places on the map became a figurative examination of the small places of the heart, a quest for virtues lost amid negativity and disillusionment. From Triumph, Louisiana, a community twice ravaged by hurricanes, to Justice, West Virginia, where one-half the population descends from the Hatfields and the McCoys; from Harmony, California, a town that can be yours for the right price, to Faith, South Dakota, overrun by a hailstorm and a grasshopper plague, States of Mind brings into focus an American psyche blurred by intersecting cultures. A journey all its own, it also conjures the humor of Travels with Charley, the yearning of On the Road, and the eloquence of Blue Highways.