From 2001 to 2006, Richard L. Cates Jr. interviewed senior members of
more than 30 families living in and around Arena township, a small
community in southern Wisconsin. He asked them about growing up in rural
America and their connection to a way of life that is vanishing in the
twenty-first century.The result, Voices from the Heart of the Land, is
a collection of reminiscences, observations, and opinions celebrating
the stewardship of the land and the values of the stewards. Of course,
as Cates points out, these are nothing less than our core human values
integrity, commitment, responsibility, citizenship, self-determination,
decency, kindness, love, and hope. "