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Vance, J. D.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Hardcover – June 28, 2016

by J. D. Vance (Author)

17,941 ratings

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NAMED BY THE TIMES AS ONE OF "6 BOOKS TO HELP UNDERSTAND TRUMP'S WIN" AND SOON TO BE A MAJOR-MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD

"You will not read a more important book about America this year."—The Economist

"A riveting book."—The Wall Street Journal

"Essential reading."—David Brooks, New York Times

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.

But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] compassionate, discerning sociological analysis…Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans. Imagine that.” (Jennifer Senior, New York Times)

“[Hillbilly Elegy] is a beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America….[Vance] offers a compelling explanation for why it’s so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it…a riveting book.” (Wall Street Journal)

“[Vance’s] description of the culture he grew up in is essential reading for this moment in history.” (David Brooks, New York Times)

“[Hillbilly Elegy] couldn’t have been better timed...a harrowing portrait of much that has gone wrong in America over the past two generations...an honest look at the dysfunction that afflicts too many working-class Americans.” (National Review)

"[A]n American classic, an extraordinary testimony to the brokenness of the white working class, but also its strengths. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read… [T]he most important book of 2016. You cannot understand what’s happening now without first reading J.D. Vance." (Rod Dreher,The American Conservative)

“J.D. Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”, offers a starkly honest look at what that shattering of faith feels like for a family who lived through it. You will not read a more important book about America this year.” (The Economist)

“[A] frank, unsentimental, harrowing memoir...a superb book...” (New York Post)

“The troubles of the working poor are well known to policymakers, but Vance offers an insider’s view of the problem.” (Christianity Today)

“Vance movingly recounts the travails of his family.” (Washington Post)

“What explains the appeal of Donald Trump? Many pundits have tried to answer this question and fallen short. But J.D. Vance nails it...stunning...intimate...” (Globe and Mail (Toronto))

From the Back Cover

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class through the author’s own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of poor, white Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. In Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hanging around your neck.

The Vance family story began with hope in postwar America. J.D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.

Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780062300546
ISBN-13 : 978-0062300546
Dimensions : 1.2 x 6.3 x 9.1 inches
Publisher : Harper; Reprint Ed. edition (June 28, 2016)
Language: : English
ASIN : 0062300547

Best Sellers Rank: #4,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Sociology of Rural Areas
- #6 in Poverty
- #12 in Ethnic Demographic Studies

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William B Boyer

I find his book offensive to us that grew up in the south in poor areas. This book is why most people believe ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

Born and raised in Kentucky not the mountains but had friends and later worked as a social worker for the"hillbillies" that Mr Vance talks about. He has wrapped himself in this cloak about being a hillbilly when in essence he isn't one. His grandparents lived the life in Kentucky he didn't. First off I don't believe any of the people I knew or worked with would appreciate being called a hillbilly to explain away ignorance, violence and drug addiction. Too many of these people are the salt of the earth and would be greatly offended by the depiction Mr Vance paints. Within every socioeconomic group you will find what Mr Vance has attributed to the hillbilly way of life. I find his book offensive to us that grew up in the south in poor areas. This book is why most people believe we are always barefoot and pregnant. This book was a waste of a day I can't get back.

739 people found this helpful

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Casey Machula

This ain't no Steinbeck

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2019

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I ordered this book from Amazon because I'd heard a rave review about it. I think it was on NPR. So, I thought I might learn something of Appalachian culture, about which I knew nothing except what I saw in Deliverance. I didn't know what an elegy was, but I thought I'd know by the time I finished. But when I turned the last page, I still didn't know. So I looked it up. I found it defined as "a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead." I didn't find Hillbilly Elegy to be just that, exactly. Hillbilly culture, or variations on the theme, run through our American culture, and aren't confined to a geographical location. Just go to any Walmart. Rather, I found it to be an autobiography of a man who really didn't grow up in Appalachia, but was profoundly influenced by its toxic culture, and who beat the odds against him. Mr. Vance is obviously very proud of himself. And he should be. But this is not an elegy. I think the purpose of this book is an exercise is ego definition. And I'm not saying that is bad or wrong. People can't live without a representation of self to self. Otherwise, we wouldn't function in this world. But Mr. Vance's struggle with ego is a leitmotif that runs through the entire book. And that's fine too. What I take issue with is the way he does it. He tries the opposite tack of Postmodernism: he tries to be objective. And for an autobiography, I don't think this is appropriate.

Mr. Vance likes to cite sociological and demographic statistics to back up his personal narrative. But, why? Isn't one's subjective experience enough? This work will never be considered anything more than anecdotal, so why try? This is not the sort of personal narrative one finds in something like Knausgaard's "My Struggle," which, fiction or not, makes you feel like you've known the man all your life and could sit down and have a beer with him without feeling the least bit awkward. On the contrary, Vance's yarn is presented in something like the third person, a stance I don't understand. As a result, the prose is dry and choppy. I found myself slogging through just to get through. As an effort at self-awareness in the Socratic tradition (Know thyself), I'd give this work a D. One never feels like the author is revealing himself, at least not with the brutal honesty of Knausgaard. Instead, it reads like a Hallmark card of correct sentimentality. This is not an age of political correctness: it's an age of sentimental correctness; and, Vance assures us with Hallmark card certainty that his sentiments are correct. He adores his sister and Mamaw and Papaw. He's a devout family man with the best of intentions. He goes to church and believes in Jesus. He's a conservative who doubts the ability of government to make effective change. Fine and dandy. But I wouldn't want to sit next to this guy on an airplane. I think the conversation would always get steered to himself. He finished Ohio State in two years, with honors. And then went to Yale and became editor of the "prestigious" Yale Law Review. And to ice the cake, he served as a Marine in Iraq. I mean, this dude's a physical and mental mensch. Man is the measure of all things, said Protagoras. And Vance is the measure of all men.

I think Mr. Vance might be posturing himself for a shot at political office.

Anyway, read it if you like. But this ain't no Steinbeck.

269 people found this helpful

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Paul Edmondson

Don't waste your time

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Total vanity project! This guy is nothing special, there are hardship stories much more absorbing and interesting than this out there. This could be the biography of millions of people. You could just as easily pick someone out of the Walmart check-out line and ask them to write 300 pages of their life. Just goes to show you ANYONE can write a book

270 people found this helpful

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Amazon Reviewer

Horrid!

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

I, like a few others, doubt the ability of this author to have such clear memories of childhood events. I just don't buy it for a second. If I were to sum up what I learned, it would be that unless you have a "social network" of people working in front of or behind the scenes on your behalf, you're screwed. This book doesn't offer any hope, but only points out why opportunities like his will never happen for many Americans. I think a lot of people will be put off by his arrogance. I wanted to stop reading at chapter 3 but was encouraged by a friend to give it a chance. It only got worse. I'm sorry I wasted my time and money.

215 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Disingenuous portrayal of those from Appalachia

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

While some of the portrayals in this book of people from Appalachia are accurate, to portray most as being alcoholics who regularly engage in physical violence in the family as normal is way off base. Most of our extensive Appalachian family and friends avoid alcohol use and frown upon those who imbibe, no matter if it is done in moderation. I am sorry the author’s family were brutal alcoholics but to paint the majority of those from Appalachia with same brush is ignorant and does not paint an accurate picture. It is a shame many believe this book to be an accurate portrayal of those from Appalachia. He speaks for himself only in this book, please do not accept this as how the majority of people from here are.

114 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Janie U

Very interesting for many people to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

It is all too easy to dismiss the views of both Trump voters and Brexit voters as uneducated. The lesson that many politicians have got to learn is understanding (as well as humility but that's another story). I have thought about this dilemma a lot and was recommended this book by an American friend - when I don;t understand something my default is to read about it rather than just relying on soundbites on the TV!!
The book wasn't quite what I expected and I was delighted. I expected a more formal study but I got a very personal account of being raised in white, working class America and making it good.
As the start of the book I was full of questions and many of them were answered as JD's story progressed.
Most of the book is very personal but I found the most fascinating parts when he discusses the view, within America, of the white working class and the disadvantages that they deal with. There is a lot of pondering in the narrative that could be reduced at times but, to my delight, little use of academic theories.
This book will be very interesting for many people to read.

32 people found this helpful

多讀書

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

I bought this book after reading a favourable review in The Economist, and I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed.

Both the reviews I have read and praise found on the cover of the book itself tell potential readers that this book is key to unlocking the mystery of Trump's election and the Brexit result, but the text offered no clues of the sort. Certainly, it is an interesting insight into what it's like growing up in white, working-class poverty. It goes a fair way to explaining the 'what' of the situation, but not the 'why' or 'how.'

The overarching message is that people who lack familial stability, or role models who are 'like them' but 'better' (for example Barack Obama is quintessentially not one of these people) will continue the cycle of poverty, and there are few things that government and policy can do to change it. Change must come from within, but how?

Few answers can be found in the book, unfortunately.

16 people found this helpful

Christine Frost

Hillbilly Hell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

J D Vance grew up poor in a highly dysfunctional family in American's rust belt. His narcotic addicted mother trailed a stream of 'father figures' through his young life via multiple marriages. That he escaped his chaotic upbringing and eventually graduated from Yale Law School is nothing short of a miracle. He gives much of the credit for this transformation to the formidable women in his extended family - especially his beloved grandmother MaMaw and his steadfast sister Lindsey. These women loved him, defended him, recognized his potential and helped him find his way to a better life. A very interesting look at the 'hillbilly culture' of Appalachian Kentucky - and a remarkable story of Vance's triumph over almost insurmountable odds. He was dealt a poor hand at birth, but has played it very well.

15 people found this helpful

Catherine Rotte-Murray

A window to an unknown subculture

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is an autobiography of a self proclaimed hillbilly from Appalachia whose life was dysfunctional and chaotic. He grew up in an extended family with loving grandparents and a serial monogamist drug addict mother. He made it out of the poverty trap and got to study law in Yale, married and became a successful lawyer. His past never leaves him as he reacts to triggers from his childhood in adult life - he gets cut off by another driver and his instinct is to get out and beat him up. He manages to resist the impulse and as he reflects on his people's reactions to others he realises their first line of defence is attack. The violence in his immediate family is visceral and one memorable passage describing his near encounter with death at the hands of his mother is beyond belief. How he lied to keep his mother out of jail and to prevent CPS taking him into care is something he agonises over years later. His loving grandparents battled alcoholism and violence themselves and his grandmother would have had no qualms about killing anyone who hurt her extended family.
His realisation that the norms of life passed him by when he attends a posh dinner and hasn't a clue about table manners or etiquette is almost funny if it weren't so poignant. Cutlery and the fancy food and his first encounter with sparkling water is nearly his downfall but he gets through it.
The four years he spends in the marines makes a man of him and taught him life coping skills like managing finances and living independently in college.
All in all I enjoyed the book although my book club friends thought it was a bit unbelievable that he was so ignorant of the world outside his neck of the woods. I wasn't as I have seen people living in other cultures who would find our Western cultural norms alien.
I sense JD Vance's politics would be very conservative Republican and despite that I found his honesty and desire to get on while not rejecting his past very laudable.

11 people found this helpful

Robert Potter

Terrific personal view of growing up in the industrial underclass

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

Growing up of Kentucky, but often not living in it (because his parents moved to Indiana before they split), Vance provides a compelling spotlight on hillbilly life, which reads across to disaffected/disenfranchised poor people everywhere. His parents split up, his father disappeared for years, his mother had a succession of boyfriends and a drug habit, there was little work to be had as the auto plant closed down, many of his peers ended up in and out of prison. What saved Vance was (a) he was smart, but, even more, (b) his maternal grandparents provided a base of stability and a work ethic that helped him to believe in himself and to pursue education and, eventually, a successful career: although, even then, years later, he suffers from imposter syndrome, a deep-seated belief that he doesn’t really deserve the good job, the loving wife and kids.

The social background is fascinating – people on the fringes of mainstream society, almost literally, hidden away in the hollers of the Appalachians – with their own codes of honour, interacting enough with The Man to get money, but feeling excluded and not expecting to achieve beyond some personal status at a local level, and kind of institutionalised low self-esteem. Bad things that happen are always someone else’s fault: and Vance gives examples of this delusional self-righteousness, such as the guy who worked with him in the tyre depot who is outraged at getting sacked, even though he hadn’t bothered to turn up for work half the time. There are parallels with the UK in terms of the working-class areas which have lost their purpose as the industries which gave them meaning – coal, steel, shipbuilding, textiles – have disappeared and not been replaced, and the close community ties which bind people make it hard to leave, or to even to believe there’s a way out – for example, via education. In the US, the problem is exacerbated by distance and sheer physical isolation. Other countries will have their own variants of communities built around things which are no longer there and which suffer from that aimlessness.

To say, as some do, that this explains Trump or Brexit is perhaps over-egging the pudding: but it offers a picture of people abandoned by the march of progress, who then withdraw into themselves in a disconnect from the mainstream. And not only is it hard for individuals to motivate themselves break out of that mould, but it also offers a fruitful field for populists to draw on, to blame Other People (foreigners, the metropolitan elite) for that disadvantage and to ride that “righteous” anger to some political end (like Brexit or Trump 2016).

Overall, a terrific read, with some great insights, from someone who has actually lived it and got out (but still can’t quite believe it).

3 people found this helpful

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