Hillbilly Elegy
Rust Belt reflection
Hillbilly Elegy is a 2016 memoir by J.D.
Vance about growing up in a struggling Appalachian family and Rust Belt community.
The book examines poverty, social dysfunction, and cultural identity among white working-class Americans.
It became a touchstone in debates about economic decline and personal responsibility: Everyone was reading Hillbilly Elegy to understand the 2016 election.
A Netflix film adaptation followed in 2020.
- AppalachiaEastern U.S. mountain region
- memoirWritten personal recollection
- J.D. VanceHillbilly Elegy author
- povertySevere lack of resources
- OhioMidwestern state, major river
Kentucky · rural · working-class · family · addiction · opioids · holler · coal · mountains · grandmother · bootstrap · pull yourself up · social mobility · American Dream · dysfunction · trailer · trailer park · rust belt
- Class DramasPride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey, Great Expectations, My Fair Lady, Pygmalion
- Netflix FilmsDon't Look Up, The Mother, Roma, The Irishman, Tick Tick Boom
- American BooksTo Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Catch-22, Walden
- memoirsmemoir, memoirs, autobiography, autobiographies, life story
- Imagine EntertainmentRon Howard, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, 24, Empire