Bestselling author Richard Grant delves into the heart of Arizona, exploring its complex political issues, climate change challenges, and immigration dynamics to reveal the intricate forces shaping its identity and future.
When Richard Grant and his wife moved with their four-year-old daughter back to Tucson, Arizona, where the couple first met, he expected to easily rekindle his love of the region. Instead, he found a housing market gone haywire, rampant election conspiracies, and right-wing political violence alarmingly close to his home and family. Undocumented immigration was surging, and the state was also on the front lines of climate change, breaking heat and drought records, and running out of long-term water supplies. Under these circumstances, Grant wondered how he might raise a happy, well-adjusted child who believes in the future. Yet these concerns weren’t keeping people away: Arizona was simultaneously experiencing some of the nation’s highest population growth.
In A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Grant mixes memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place. He visits the world’s largest machine-gun shoot; takes a sunset boat cruise with a US Congressman and a group of far-right patriots; rides through the desert with a Border Patrol agent; and goes camping with his family in breathtaking mountain ranges that rise out of the desert like islands in the sky. Interspersed with these adventures are recollections of his previous stint in the state, including his friendship with cult writer Charles Bowden and years living off the grid with smugglers, dope farmers, and outlaws on the Mexican border. Ultimately, Grant arrives at the conclusion that Arizona has always been a scattershot improvisation, with bizarre and extreme behavior in its DNA.
This book is an entertaining, illuminating, and essential guide to understanding modern America at its most overheated.

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eBook - ePub
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Subtopic
North American HistoryIndex
HistoryTable of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Chapter 1: Going Home
- Chapter 2: Coming into the Country
- Chapter 3: Desert Limbo
- Chapter 4: Big Empty
- Chapter 5: Brick House
- Chapter 6: Risk
- Chapter 7: Home at Last
- Chapter 8: To Please the Trigger Finger
- Chapter 9: The Chiricahuas
- Chapter 10: Violence and Delusion
- Chapter 11: Patterns of Life
- Chapter 12: Arivaca
- Chapter 13: AR15ONA
- Chapter 14: Cities, Farms, and Water
- Chapter 15: Monsoon Summer
- Chapter 16: Big Sandy
- Chapter 17: The Lions of the Right
- Chapter 18: Walk in Beauty
- Chapter 19: Heatstruck for Trump
- Chapter 20: Forest People
- About the Author
- Notes
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access A Race to the Bottom of Crazy by Richard Grant in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.