Regarding J.D. Vance. Unlearning the Lessons of 'Hillbilly Elegy'

[Passages]

America’s beleaguered poor and working class have a host of problems, but the culture of irresponsibility that J.D. Vance says they’re prey to isn’t one of them.

BY STANLEY B. GREENBERG NOVEMBER 27, 2020


With the release of the Hillbilly Elegy movie this week on Netflix, we’re rereading Prospect board member Stan Greenberg’s reflections on J.D. Vance’s 2016 best-seller. This article first appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of The American Prospect.

J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy has been on The New York Times’ best-seller list for nearly two years, and deservedly, given how improbable the author’s odyssey has been. Vance grew up with a drug-addicted mom involved with an untold number of men, in a world of broken marriages, teen pregnancies, alcoholism, violence, mistrust, anger, and fatalism. He owes his life and survival to loving grandparents who taught him to value hard work and education. After he graduated high school, he went into the Marine Corps, then to Ohio State, to Yale for his law degree, and on to Silicon Valley before moving back to Columbus, Ohio, where he wrote this memoir at age 31. The book is powerfully written and poignant—and for a year, I decided to give J.D. Vance a pass. It is important his story be told and respected.

The problem is that Vance is wrong about the lessons we should take from his memoir. Liberals, too, are wrong to think they can do penance and better understand the Trump voter if they read the book. And conservatives are most certainly wrong to believe that this powerful personal story confirms their belief that poverty is invariably the result of bad personal choices and immune to any governmental solutions.
https://prospect.org/culture/books/unlearning-lessons-hillbilly-elegy-nov20/

I felt this look back at Vance is relevant due to today's announcement, if the moderators believe it is too old, please let me know and I will delete it.