I am hanging my head in shame after reading this book about my home state. I didn't think it was possible for me to be any more embarrassed by my home state than I already have been but Gail Collins reveals just how low things have sunk back there and sadly, I fear it may be impossible to fix at this point. She completely nails it with her depictions of Rick Perry and George W. Bush. This book, more than anything, illuminates for me why I had to get out of Texas. It just didn't fit me and where I was in my life anymore. While some of her findings are more intriguing than others (her stuff on the economic crisis was a bit more of a slog) for the most part, this is a well-crafted, well-researched and sadly accurate depiction of what has happened to our country and where we can put most of the blame. After her "When Everything Changed", Collins has proven that she knows how to write a good, thorough but non-boring work of non-fiction that is both illuminating and saddening.