Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance (review)

J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir lamenting the passing of his grandparents and mountain heritage as it dissolved in a midwestern city. The migration of southern mountaineers from the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia to midwestern states occurred in two waves. Industries in places such as Detroit, Michigan, and Middletown, Ohio, regularly recruited workers from the southern mountains because of their work ethic, mechanical ability, and perceived anti-union tendencies. These "hillbillies," as Vance calls them, flocked north to these and other midwestern cities pulled at first by the prospect of good jobs and after World War II pushed by the failing coal industry in the mountains.

It is estimated that between 1940 and 1970 a wave of more than three million people left the Appalachian region to seek employment in places like Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati and numerous other industrial centers throughout the Midwest. This internal movement of people had a lasting impact on the receiving cities as well as those who moved north on what Vance describes as the "hillbilly highway." Many of these migrants found success in their new urban places, rising to a comfortable middle-class life style. Many others were unsuccessful, slipping further down the social ladder.

Hillbilly Elegy is the story of one such family that moved from Jackson, Kentucky, to Middletown, Ohio. For Vance's grandparents, Mamaw and Pawpaw Vance, "Armco was an economic savior—the engine that brought them from the hills of Kentucky into America's middle class." The family exhibited typical Appalachian migrant values and behaviors, regularly visiting their root family in Kentucky and teaching children and grandchildren about family loyalty, independence, and toughness. But all was not perfect. Of Mamaw and Pawpaw's three children, two were successful, but Vance's mom was not. She became the center of a dysfunctional family due to prescription drug abuse and later heroin addiction and serial marriages. Vance and his older sister faced all of the issues found in such a disruptive household including problems in school. As a result, he spent several periods living with his grandparents who provided a safe home where he and his sister could flee their mother's turmoil.

The story of this family is not an unusual one for transplanted southern mountaineers. "The problems of our community hit close to home," writes Vance. "Mom's struggles weren't some isolated incident. They were replicated, replayed, and relived by many of the people who, like us had moved hundreds of miles in search of a better life. There was no end in sight. Mamaw had thought she escaped the poverty of the hills, but the poverty—emotional if not financial—had followed her." Throughout the book Vance credits his tough, foulmouthed Mamaw for keeping him safe and pushing him to set and achieve his goals.

It is easy for readers to stereotype Appalachians as dysfunctional, poor white trash based on Vance's depiction of his family. That would be unfortunate because one can find dysfunctional families with many of the same problems in the elite neighborhoods of New York City; San Francisco; Washington, DC; or Boulder, Colorado. Those of us who have lived and studied life at both ends of the "hillbilly highway" are keenly aware of the successes and failures of individuals and families. The loss of economic opportunities in the mountains and in midwestern industrial communities has taken its toll on many people.

Although this is not a sociological treatise, Vance discusses several social issues related to poor whites including education, substance abuse, children in abusive family situations, financial issues, and political polarization. He is critical of many governmental efforts to alleviate the problems in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities. He believes policy makers and politicians have no real concept of the impact of their ivory tower solutions. One of several of his examples is the tight regulation of payday lenders...