Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

byJ. D. Vance

June 28, 2016|
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance
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Part memoir, part historical and social analysis, J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy is a fascinating consideration of class, culture, and the American dream.

Vance’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love.” They got married and moved north from Kentucky to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. Their grandchild (the author) graduated from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving upward mobility for their family. But Vance cautions that is only the short version. The slightly longer version is that his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and mother struggled to varying degrees with the demands of their new middle class life and they, and Vance himself, still carry around the demons of their chaotic family history.

Delving into his own personal story and drawing on a wide array of sociological studies, Vance takes us deep into working class life in the Appalachian region. This demographic of our country has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, and Vance provides a searching and clear-eyed attempt to understand when and how “hillbillies” lost faith in any hope of upward mobility, and in opportunities to come.

At times funny, disturbing, and deeply moving, this is a family history that is also a troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large portion of this country.

Freshman Common Read: University of Wisconsin, Middle Tennessee State University, Flager University, Miami University (Ohio), University of Denver, Augustana College, Fairmount State University, University of Notre Dame
J.D. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served for four years in Iraq. He is a graduate of the Ohio State University (2007-2009) Political Science and Philosophy, Summa Cum Laude and Yale Law School, Doctor of Law (J.D.) (2010-2013). He has contributed to the ...
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Title:Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Format:Hardcover
Product dimensions:272 pages, 9 X 6 X 0.93 in
Shipping dimensions:272 pages, 9 X 6 X 0.93 in
Published:June 28, 2016
Publisher:HarperCollins
Language:English
Appropriate for ages:All ages
ISBN - 13:9780062300546

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