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posted: January 11, 2025
tl;dr: A first person account of the lives of the working poor, from a survivor of domestic turbulence...
With Ohio senator J.D. Vance soon to be inaugurated as the Vice President of the United States, I decided to read his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a book that I’ve known of since its publication and initial success. Actually I listened to the audiobook version, which Vance himself reads. Soon after its publication Hillbilly Elegy was popular with book clubs, well before Vance got into politics. It covers some pertinent family history and his early life, up until the time that he graduates from Yale Law School and becomes a lawyer, so it ends before his foray into venture capital and then politics. Now that he is a prominent figure in the Team Red versus Team Blue War, many holding opposing political views may be tempted to dismiss Hillbilly Elegy. This is a shame. It is just one person’s story, of course, but it describes many of the challenges facing people in the communities where Vance was raised.
Hillbilly Elegy is a succinct book rather than an exhaustive one. It’s an easy read. Vance focuses on the key people and events in his life, starting from his earliest memories. He describes how he went from having trouble in his early days of high school to eventually succeeding well enough to get into the Marines and then Ohio State, where the maturity and discipline from being a Marine helped propel him to Yale Law.
At Yale Law he had a very different background than most of the other students and ended up marrying a fellow student who also was from a non-traditional background. He credits his wife and new family, as well as his religious beliefs, for some of the success he’s had, but he also shows how the people who raised him, as dysfunctional as they were, provided some key lessons and tools. Sadly, his story is much more the exception than the rule for people from his hometown.
Vance does not shirk from showing how the people in the communities he’s from often sabotage their own lives. It’s not entirely obvious what political views he would form based upon his own experiences, although he does state several times that he is a conservative. He is skeptical of government programs to solve the problems of the working class poor, pointing out several times how they failed to do so, although he does state that there are some ways to help (or at least prevent further harm). He places more of the blame on the flaws of the culture in which he was raised. He draws a few parallels with the culture of black inner-city neighborhoods, where similar problems exist. Several times Vance points out that the white working class is even more pessimistic than blacks are.
Now that Vance is a heartbeat away from being a Team Blue President, all too many people will portray him as evil. Yet what comes across strongly in Hillbilly Elegy is Vance’s humanity and empathy: he does truly appear to care about the lives of other people. He cites plenty of sociological studies; clearly he is looking to these studies to find answers that can improve the lives of the poor. Now that J.D. Vance is in a position of even greater power, he can influence policies in ways that will hopefully improve the lives of the people from poor communities. We should all hope he succeeds.