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A downtown Richmond mural memorializes victims of the explosion.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

A gas leak beneath a sporting goods store with a basement full of gunpowder was the worst thing ever to happen to a prosperous Midwestern manufacturing town. So we once thought.

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A Rust Belt Elegy

J.D. Vance peeked through the window of his dysfunctional home and judged the world around him deficient in grit and character and drive. He saw the trees but missed the forest.

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What's the matter with Florida?

With apologies to Thomas Frank, who asked why Kansas voters consistently align along cultural biases at the expense of economic sanity, we shine a light on a state filled with exotic imports.

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Tears in Appalachia

The fog-shrouded hollows and tumbling streams of an ancient mountain range attracted freedom-loving refugees from the Old Country long before Northern speculators discovered there were resources to steal. Now this,

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