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The cover of Hillbilly Elegy

Hillbilly Elegy

J. D. Vance, 2016

Growing up amid addiction and chaos in an Ohio steel town, J.D. Vance learned what holds poor kids back, and how a few steady people can pull them through.

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9 parts, about 22 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Tells a family story from the Kentucky hills to an Ohio steel town, showing how moving north carried old habits and wounds along
  • Argues lost jobs are an incomplete explanation, pointing to a lack of agency and a readiness to blame anyone but yourself
  • Uses adverse childhood experiences, the Marines and a grandmother's three house rules to show what helped one boy escape and what still follows him

Who it is for

  • Readers trying to understand white working class poverty from the inside
  • People who left their hometown and feel pulled between two worlds
  • Readers who grew up amid addiction or family chaos

What the summary covers

  1. Why I Tell This Story3 min
  2. Hill People on the Hillbilly Highway3 min
  3. What Middletown Expected2 min
  4. The Revolving Door3 min
  5. Three Years With Mamaw3 min
  6. Learned Willfulness2 min
  7. An Outsider at Yale2 min
  8. The Bear That Comes Home2 min
  9. Thumbs on the Scale2 min

Recommended by

  • Amy ChuaProfessor of law at Yale Law School
  • Peter ThielEntrepreneur and investor
    Elites tend to see our social crisis in terms of ‘stagnation’ or ‘inequality.’ J. D. Vance writes powerfully about the real people who are kept out of sight by academic abstractions.
  • Reihan SalamPresident of the Manhattan Institute
    Never before have I read a memoir so powerful, and so necessary.
  • David BrooksAuthor and political commentator
    Essential reading.

About the author

  • J. D. VanceVice President of the United States and author of Hillbilly Elegy
    • Born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, where he was raised.
    • Raised mainly by his maternal grandparents, whom he called Papaw and Mamaw.
    • Grew up in Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky, then enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq.
    • Graduated from Ohio State University in 2009 with highest honors in political science and philosophy.
    • Earned his law degree from Yale Law School in May 2013.
    • At Yale, Professor Amy Chua persuaded him to begin writing Hillbilly Elegy during his first year.
    • Worked in venture capital in San Francisco, including as a principal at Mithril Capital from 2016 to 2017.
    • Hillbilly Elegy was published by Harper in June 2016.

Read it alongside

  • Pushes backOutclassed

    J. D. Vance argues that lost jobs only partly explain his community's troubles and that only the community can fix them; Joan C. Williams traces the decline to lost stable work and departing local institutions and argues that durable jobs and place based investment can help rebuild.

  • Goes deeperChasing the Scream

    Vance recounts his mother's addiction and his own adverse childhood experiences; Hari argues, drawing on the ACE study, that trauma and isolation drive addiction more than the drug's chemistry does.

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