The term "the Heartland" is often used by politicians trying to connect with people, and is also used to define a national identity, often in a way that excludes some people within the country. The heartland has become a term of mythology that defines a place and a people that inhabits it, and in the US, it evokes ruralness, or small town values, agriculturally or Main Street oriented, overwhelmingly white, and suspicious of the outside world. University of Illinois historian Kristin Hoganson