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Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy
Since JD Vance is now Trump’s VP candidate, I decided to get my book review posted.
The book was rather celebrated by some quarters on the left as a way for people on the left to understand the shock of Trump’s 2016 election. The book’s subtitle is “A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” I’m guessing it is due to be heavily torn apart by the media now that Vance is Trump’s VP candidate.
It is often a strange world, a professor who significantly helped Vance at Yale was Amy Chua, who wrote the recent Political Tribes and the Fall of Nations, which I find to be a more important book for understanding our peril than Vance’s. Both are useful, however, and now this one is now much more likely to get attention.
Vance tells his own story of a childhood full of chaos and a “crazy hillbilly Mammaw (grandma)” that kept him from becoming the standard “statistic.” Rather, he became an “outlier” who joins the Marines, graduates from Yale Law, has a great wife, job, etc. Along the way he tells about other “hillbillies” that moved north from Tennessee, Kentucky, “Appalachia,” for “better lives” in Ohio and other Rust Belt states, only to discover that when removed from the tight extended families and communities in which they were born, they turned to rank consumerism, generally poor life choices in food, finance, health, and love (out of wedlock births, serial relationships, abuse), and often addiction and early death.
The “Hillbillies” are dying … thus the “elegy,” kind of like eulogy, is a lament of the dead or dying.
He talks about the perils of life on the dole — and how the working-class poor can’t figure out how the government-funded poor have smartphones, steak for dinner, better housing, etc., and actually “look down” on those working serial and sometimes parallel low-wage, long-hour jobs. As he says on page 140:
“Political scientists have spent millions of lines of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the South went from staunchly Democrat to staunchly Republican in less than a generation. Some blame race relations and the Democrat party’s embrace of the civil rights movement. Others cite religious faith and the hold of evangelical churches in that region. A big part of the explanation lies in the fact that a big percentage of the white middle class saw just what I did working at Dillman’s (grocery store). As far back as the 70s, the white working class began to turn Republican because of the perception that as one man put it; government was payin people on welfare for doin nothin! They’re laughing at our society! And we hard working people are getting laughed at for working every day!”
At times I wonder if people on the left actually read the supposedly “in” books of the left. The idea that the shift of the South and Appalachia from D to R was CAUSED by Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” is dogma on NPR and in general for the left. It is sort of like the Virgin Birth for Christians… if you are left, you HAVE to believe that most of what has caused the rise of Republicans is racism … coupled, of course, with stupidity. Republicans are ALWAYS really, really stupid! To be part of a tribe is to believe its dogma (and of course believe that it is a “fact,” not dogma).
Another point he makes that would seem obvious to anyone having remotely looked at the history of Western civilization and the decline thereof since, say, 1900, is the following on page 92:
Religious folks are much happier. Regular church attendees commit fewer crimes, are in better health, live longer, make more money, drop out of high school less frequently, and finish college more frequently than those who don’t attend church at all. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber even found that the relationship was causal: It’s not just that people who happen to live successful lives go to church, it’s that church seems to promote good habits.
I’m always suspicious of “statistical proofs,” ESPECIALLY when they agree with my biases! My PERSONAL belief is that, especially in today’s world, people who PRACTICE their religion must be people of sturdy individual character and a strong relationship with Christ, because the general culture is so much against them. The other observation is that people under common duress (like soldiers being attacked) tend to bond pretty well. Since the practice of religion is generally attacked in the West, the faithful tend to bond better than ever, thus making vital human connections that serve to improve their lives.
In any case, even though it can be damned depressing at times, it is a good little story that has a happy ending. Often one can’t really ask for much else in a book.
If you want to go deeper into what is behind what has happened to America, and what it is going to take for Trump and Vance to Make America Great Again, I suggest “Suicide of the West.”
Published in Book Reviews
Upon recommendation from my daughter I read Hillbilly Elegy shortly after it came out. It’s a much better explanation of political changes than another book that was recommended to me about 20 years ago, What’s the Matter with Kansas. At that time the author of Kansas blamed “talk radio” (in other words, Rush Limbaugh). It was a much heralded book at the time, with NPR also pushing it. It was total crap.
Tomorrow my beloved and I travel east to visit Aunt Jeanne (92 years old) and then my best buddy, the Sundance Kid. On the way I will be listening to Hillbilly Elegy again. My beloved wants to know more about JD Vance and I thought that it would be a good start.
I watched the movie today. I suspect it differs greatly from the book. Am I right?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden claims Vance plagiarized him . . .
ha ha … and probably says “I’m a Hillbilly too!”
Yes, yes it does.
My wife and I are pure blood, certifiable, Arkansas Ozark Hillbillies with DNA ancestry (confirmed by AncestryDNA) that include German, Cherokee, Scots, Welsh, French, Irish, Spanish, Italian, Slav, Swedish, West African and apparently, who ever else wanted to join in our family “pool” party. We are a “Mix” couple, I’m raised Lutheran, while my wife was raised Southern Baptist – but we don’t talk about it. My wife and I are 30 years older then J.D. Vance, but we share a lot of his life experience growing up. Like J.D., had it not been through the grace of God, loving Grand-Parents and Uncle Sam, and enough brains/common sense to realize we didn’t want to live like that, we would have ended up becoming another standard “statistic.” I highly recommend you read the book if you get a chance.
the always entertaining Kevin Williamson review:
https://www.commentary.org/articles/kevin-williamson/albions-ashes/
And one day he was out shootin’ at some food, and up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude!
Thank you for posting this review. It was interesting.
It was produced (along with others) and directed by Ron Howard. The only recent comments I’ve seen from him is that while its been years since they talked, at the time he made the film, he was telling Howard he had no plans to be in politics.
Ron Howard isn’t usually outspoken about his politics, though he did appear in an ad, along with Andy Griffith, advocating for ObamaCare.
He seems uncomfortable about his past association with Vance at the moment, but he probably doesn’t want to trash him either.
I’ve watched some of his in depth interviews, and I come away from them that he truly is a nice guy who doesn’t want to be controversial. And of course his acting roots come from the Andy Griffith Show and the fictional town of Mayberry, which is a southern town. A lot of his older fan base are conservatives, and he’s probably cognizent of that.
In the end, Howard projects conservative family values, and that seems to be how he was raised, and how he raised his own children.
As for his Hillbilly Elegy film being different than the book, well it won’t be the first “true” story he’s obscured. The ending of A Beautiful Mind opts for a happy ending, when in real life, it simply wasn’t.
Sounds like a lot of people on the left, living an essentially conservative lifestyle themselves while decrying it to the rest of the world.
I grew up in a time when that wasn’t the case. Plenty of sturdy Christians then as well.
I’ve only read the intro so far, but it was clear to me why Trump picked him. He’s not a seasoned politician and doesn’t have all the answers. What he does know comes from the gut – he knows the Mid-west and many struggles in small town America . Many across any racial and economic divides will relate – and those are the people that Trump relates to and is trying to reach and help. He will be a support to Trump but has both feet in reality, unlike Harris or Obamas etc. who claim they are for the people – but their lifestyles and choices say other………..
He was raised by hillbillies . . .
Guessing you are joking.
I imagine he may have claimed that at some point. He did claim that he was “sorta” raised Porto Rican. He has made a lot of claims … Jewish Synagogues, Black Churches, appointment to military academy, being a truck driver, etc.
When Biden says, “True story, no joke”, it indicates it is a lie like pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth.