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| Author | JD Vance |
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| Subject | Rural sociology,poverty,family drama |
| Published | June 28, 2016 (2016-06-28) (Harper Press)[1] |
| Pages | 264 |
| Awards | 2017Audie Award for Nonfiction |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-230054-6 |
| LC Class | HD8073.V37 |
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Personal
50th Vice President of the United States Vice presidential campaign   | ||
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis is a 2016memoir byJD Vance about theAppalachian values of his family fromKentucky and the socioeconomic problems of his hometown ofMiddletown, Ohio, where his mother's parents moved when they were young. It was adapted into the 2020 filmHillbilly Elegy, directed byRon Howard and starringGlenn Close andAmy Adams.[2]
Later, Vance progressed inpublic service, becoming asenator from Ohio in 2023 and thevice president of the United States in 2025.
Vance describes his upbringing and family background while growing up inMiddletown, Ohio, where his mother and her family had moved afterWorld War II fromBreathitt County, Kentucky.
Vance states that theirAppalachian culture valued traits such as loyalty and love of country despite family violence and verbal abuse. Vance recounts his grandparents'alcoholism as well as his mother's history ofdrug addictions and failed relationships. Vance's grandparents reconciled and became hisguardians. His strict but loving grandmother pushed Vance, who went on to complete undergraduate studies atOhio State University and earned aJuris Doctor degree fromYale Law School.[3]
Vance raises questions about the responsibility of his family and local people for their misfortunes. Vance suggests thathillbilly culture fosterssocial disintegration and economic insecurity in Appalachia. He cites a personal experience where, while working as a grocery store cashier, he sawwelfare recipients with cell phones when he could not afford one.[3]
Vance's antipathy toward those who seemed to profit from poor behavior while he struggled is presented as a rationale for Appalachia's political swing from votingDemocratic to a strongRepublican affiliation. Vance tells stories highlighting the lack ofwork ethic of the local people, including the story of a man who quit his job after expressing dislike over his work hours, and a co-worker with a pregnant girlfriend who skipped work unexcused.[3]
In July 2016,Hillbilly Elegy was popularized by an interview with Vance inThe American Conservative.[4] The volume of requests briefly disabled the website. Halfway through August,The New York Times wrote that the title had remained in the top tenAmazon bestsellers since the interview's publication.[3]
Vance has credited his Yale contract law professorAmy Chua as the "authorial godmother" of the book, as she persuaded him to write the memoir.[5]
The book reached the top ofThe New York Times best seller list in August 2016[6] and January 2017.[7]
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In a positive review inThe New York Times,Jennifer Senior wrote that Vance's confrontation of a social taboo was admirable, regardless of whether the reader agreed with his conclusions. She described the book as "a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent ofDonald J. Trump." Senior wrote that Vance's subject is despair, and his argument was more generous in that it blamesfatalism andlearned helplessness rather thanindolence.[3]
A 2017Brookings Institution report noted that "J. D. Vance'sHillbilly Elegy became a national bestseller for its raw, emotional portrait of growing up in and eventually out of a poor rural community riddled bydrug addiction and instability." Vance's account anecdotally confirmed the report's conclusion that family stability is essential to upward mobility.[8]
In an interview withSüddeutsche Zeitung in July 2023, German chancellorOlaf Scholz called the book "a very touching personal story of how a young man with poor starting conditions makes his way." Scholz said the book had moved him to tears, but that he found the positions Vance later took to be "tragic."[9]
The book was positively received by conservatives such asNational Review columnistMona Charen[10] andNational Review editor andSlate columnistReihan Salam.[11]American Conservative contributor and bloggerRod Dreher expressed admiration forHillbilly Elegy, saying that Vance "draws conclusions... that may be hard for some people to take. Vance has earned the right to make those judgments. This was his life. He speaks with authority that has been extremely hard won."[12] The following month, Dreher posted about his theories about why liberals loved the book.[13]New York Post columnist and editor ofCommentaryJohn Podhoretz described the book as among the year's most provocative.[14]
However, other journalists criticized Vance for generalizing too much from his personal upbringing in suburban Ohio.[15][16][17][18]Jared Yates Sexton ofSalon criticized Vance for his "damaging rhetoric" and for endorsing policies used to "gut the poor". He argues that Vance "totally discounts the role racism played in the white working class's opposition toPresident Obama."[19] Sarah Jones ofThe New Republic mocked Vance as "the false prophet ofBlue America," dismissing him as "a flawed guide to this world" and the book as little more than "a list of myths aboutwelfare queens repackaged as a primer on the white working class."[16]
Historian Bob Hutton wrote inJacobin that Vance's argument relied oncircular logic andeugenics, ignored existing scholarship on Appalachian poverty, and was "primarily a work of self-congratulation."[15]Sarah Smarsh withThe Guardian noted that "most downtrodden whites are not conservative maleProtestants from Appalachia" and called into question Vance's generalizations about the white working class from his personal upbringing.[17]
The book provoked a response in the form of an anthology,Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll. The essays in the volume criticize Vance for making broad generalizations and reproducing myths about poverty.[18]
The book was discussed in an episode of the podcastIf Books Could Kill.[20]
A key reason forHillbilly Elegy's widespread popularity following its publication in 2016 was its role in explainingDonald Trump'srise to the top of the Republican Party.[21] In particular, it purportedly explains whywhite, working-class voters became attracted to Trump as a political leader.[22] Vance himself offered commentary on how his book provides perspective on why a voter from the "hillbilly" demographic would support Trump.[23]
Although he does not mention Trump in the book, Vance openly criticized the then presidential candidate while discussing his memoir in a 2016 interview following the book's release.[24] Vance walked these comments back when he joined the2022 U.S. Senate race in Ohio, and later openly endorsed Trump.[25][26] In July 2024, Vance was picked by Trump to be his running mate on theRepublican ticket for the2024 U.S. presidential election.[27]
After Vance was announced as Trump's running mate in 2024, sales of the book and viewership for the film on Netflix increased dramatically.[28]
On July 15, 2024, anInternet hoax spread from social networkTwitter falsely claiming thatHillbilly Elegy described Vance having sexual intercourse with a couch.Internet memes were generated in response, and theviral hoax's spread was amplified after theAssociated Press published and promptly deleted afact-check of it.[29]
In 2017, Vance signed an $8 million deal to write a sequel toHillbilly Elegy.[30]
On Sale: June 28, 2016
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