Hard Living in America's Heartland

Despite living hard, endlessly challenging lives, the rural poor remain tirelessly optimistic, believing things will get better next year. As one struggling farmer explained, "Sometimes I feel like a jackass in a hailstorm--I just have to stand here and take it...but what the hell--it''ll stop hailing sooner or later."

The struggle to survive on the richest farmland in America has produced so...