A Book Review of "Hillbilly Elegy", by J.D. Vance

Book Summary

Hillbilly Elegy is the first-person account of a multi-generational dysfunctional family.  The author was born August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, the grandson of economic migrants from eastern Kentucky.  The author connects his personal values and difficulties to his heritage from Appalachian people.  According to Vance, the attributes of Appalachian culture include fierce independence, patriotism, suspicion of outsiders, loyalty to family, and violence.  Religion is a value that is espoused, but less often observed.

The author was raised principally by his grandparents in Ohio, but maintained a connection to Kentucky through frequent family visits.  The grandparents had raised their children under conditions of alcoholism and domestic violence.  The author’s mother raised her family while engaging in drug addiction, revolving door relationships, home instability and domestic violence.  By the time the author was born, the author’s grandparents had cleaned up their behavior, and they provided a safe haven for Vance as a child.

Vance characterizes the Appalachian culture as suffering from poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness.  He implies that these problems underlie the personal issues of substance addiction, domestic violence and apathy.  Near the end of the book, Vance brings in a political dimension when he rejects most government policy solutions for the problems of this culture, reflecting his generally conservative world-view.  Vance also provides no solutions for the systematic problems of the Appalachian culture.

Viewpoint

Throughout the book, it was difficult for me to accept that the author is writing about recent times, and not the distant past.  It took me some time to realize that I was his parents’ age, and J.D. Vance is of my children’s generation.

I knew the children of the Appalachian economic migration when I was in elementary school in the 1960s.  The children were blond and spoke with southern accents.  We who were natives of Indiana told cruel jokes about the children from Kentucky; the children from Kentucky told jokes about the children from Tennessee.

Hillbilly Elegy generalizes the problems of the Appalachian culture to the white working class.   The white working class is of intense political interest, due to the shift of allegiance of this group from the Democratic Party to Donald Trump.  Joan C. Williams, writing in the Harvard Business Review, discusses that shift in an insightful article.  (https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class)

I think that Hillbilly Elegy is correct in characterizing the white working class as a pessimistic culture.  This explains many of the traits of middle America.  Drawing on the writings of physicist David Deutsch, pessimistic cultures expect change to bring something bad.  Outside influences and higher education are feared, because these can bring change.  Pessimistic cultures desire authoritative government and institutions, and revere the military and police.  Pessimistic cultures encourage conformity and discipline, particularly in education.  Pessimistic cultures are also religious; relying on divine protection from dangers in a world that they fear.

Reading Hillbilly Elegy, one is left with the impression that dysfunctional families, alcoholism, domestic violence, and xenophobia are characteristic of Appalachian culture.  I’m not sure that is correct, or fair.  Vance’s description of Appalachian families suggests that alcoholism is common.  But a map of national alcohol consumption shows the opposite – Appalachian states are reported to have among the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in the country.  (Unless this is an artifact of biased self-reporting, which Vance mentions in passing, regarding church attendance.)

Vance sometimes uses the term “elites”.  Certainly, Vance has left the socio-economic class of his birth, and achieved the highest levels of education, financial success, and status that is possible in American society.   J.D. Vance has become one of the elite members of our society.  Nevertheless, I dislike the term “elites”, for the same reasons that I dislike the term “radical Muslims”.  Both terms are broad and vague.  Both terms aggregate groups with widely differing values, goals, and reasons for association.  There are different kinds of elites, and there are elites that are in absolute opposition to each other.  There are business elites, political elites (on both sides), educational and intellectual elites, pop-culture elites, social elites, inherited wealth elites, scientific, sports and religious elites.  It just isn’t very meaningful to talk about “elites” as a group. 

Vance recognizes himself as changed; an optimist.  Nevertheless, Vance is not as changed as he thinks.  In his conservatism, Vance shows the pessimism of his origins.  I read passages such as this one: “We can’t trust the evening news.  We can’t trust our politicians.”   [Pg. 193.]  It isn’t clear whether Vance is speaking for himself, or for his constituency of the white working class.  Either way, it reflects a deep pessimism about our culture. 

Policy

Vance often makes reasonable observations and conclusions.  But he shows a worrisome tendency, typical of other conservatives, to reject academically based knowledge.  This quote is an example from an interview with NPR: “And the only way to do that I think is not by - you know, not just by reading studies and academic research on what's causing this problem, but to actually get out there and talk to people who've been affected by it.”

Vance is critical of existing welfare policies, such as food stamps.  But he offers no policy alternatives for vulnerable groups, such as children, the elderly, the homeless, mentally ill or addicted.  In interviews and in the book, Vance suggests “listening”, and admits that solutions are “complicated”.   In my view, Vance should already have some suggestions about what policies will work, and evidence that those policies will work better than the policies he would replace.

Misinformation and Belief in Nonsense

Vance recognizes the problem of misinformation in society in a striking passage from page 190 to page 195.  He faults both the fake news media and the credulousness of conservatives in believing nonsense.  But he participates in exactly the behavior that he disparages, when he says, “I don’t doubt that the Obama economy has affected many….” [negatively].  Why would Vance say such a thing?  This is nonsense.  First, presidents have little control over the economy – there is no “Obama economy”.  And certainly, the Republican Congress shares equal blame or credit with the President on the state of the economy.  Third, during Obama’s tenure, the economy has undergone one of the best extended periods of job growth since World War II, ending in full employment.  The Dow Jones Average rose from 8077 to 18873, from President Obama’s inauguration, until before the election of Donald Trump.  That is approximately a 10 percent rate of return, compounded. 

Vance is also an apologist for Fox News, writing “even the oft-maligned Fox News has always told the truth about Obama’s citizenship status and religious views.”  NO.  The TRUTH is that questions about President Obama’s citizenship and religious views are NONSENSE.  Fox News gave legitimacy to these views through their coverage, treating the questions as worthy of consideration.  Fox News gave airtime to the proponents of these questions, and presented these critics as something other than idiots.  The standard operating procedure for Fox News is to delegitimize their political opponents with false innuendo and oblique slander.  That is why Fox News cannot be regarded seriously as “news” media, but rather a propaganda outlet.  And J.D. Vance is wrong to represent Fox News as a news organization.

Networking in the American Meritocracy

Near the end of the book, Vance writes about his transition from law student to law clerk.  Vance freely admits that he lacked the basic social skills to succeed in the professional world.  Vance and his professional future were saved by networking – the intervention of professors and friends with those who would determine his future.  Vance writes: “At Yale, networking power is like the air we breathe – so pervasive that it’s easy to miss.”

Vance writes extensively about how the white working class is cut off from upward mobility, and has lost faith in the American meritocracy.  Yet in the context of Vance’s conflicted belief in the American meritocracy, the kind of assistance he received at Yale seems like something else   When success systematically depends on who knows whom, and a promising future depends on personal intervention on behalf of favored individuals, it seems to me the system is not a meritocracy, but corruption.  Vance was given a chance despite his deficits, but also benefited from a system that has cut off individuals from schools other than Yale from the highest levels in American society and government.  And that isn’t right.

The Future of J.D. Vance

It is clear to me that J.D. Vance has political aspirations, and sponsors who are promoting his career.   Vance’s rapid advancement to a principal of Mithral Capital Management, headed by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel, convinces me that he has significant sponsorship in his ambitions.  Vance recently left California to return to his native state of Ohio, a reliably Republican state in recent years.  Vance plans a “listening tour” around the state of Ohio, including speaking to a number of Republican party county chapters, lectures at Ohio State campuses, and other appearances around the state.  Vance is being assisted by a long-term advisor to Governor John Kasich. 

It seems to me that the Republican Party develops candidates for national office, focusing on Ivy-League law-school graduates.  These candidates are groomed through developmental assignments in both state governments and private finance companies.  J.D. Vance’s book, which has given him a sympathetic public persona, is part of that process.  Ironically, this process promotes the “elites” that Vance identifies as part of the problem of American politics.  Nevertheless, the process is effective in electing Republicans.  By contrast, the Democratic Party does not appear to have any effective program to develop candidates for national office. 

I predict that Vance will run for Democrat Sherrod Brown’s Senate seat in 2020, and that he will win. I could easily believe that Vance has Presidential aspirations, as well. 

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References:

Hillbilly Elegy, by author J.D. Vance, published June, 2016.

https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/25/506898862/-hillbilly-elegy-author-j-d-vance-plans-ohio-return-to-hear-state-s-challenges

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jd-vance-770a9047

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/12/21/daily-202-why-the-author-of-hillbilly-elegy-is-moving-home-to-ohio/5859da6ee9b69b36fcfeaf48/?utm_term=.11e18b49a277