Abstract
This book is a memoir of a young author, J. D. Vance, raised in middle America, in the midst of economic and social transformation, by two generations of struggling women: his mother and grandmother. As a child, he frequently moved between the homes of his mother and grandmother, and at times even to his father’s home, who had given up the custody of his son. Vance’s relationship with his mother, who was struggling in her own life, was complex. She became pregnant, married, and divorced all in her teen years. As a child, Vance had tremendous admiration for his mother. He writes, Mom “…took me to the public library before I could read, got me a library card, showed me how to use it, and always made sure I had access to kids’ books at home…. She (Mom) was definitely the smartest person I knew” (pp. 60, 65). After Vance’s birth, his mother returned to a community college and earned an associate’s degree in nursing. She had multiple and abusive partners, marriages, and divorces. Along the way, she abused alcohol and drugs and lied to keep her nursing job. Vance, at a very young age, was confronted with the difficult decision to go along with his mother’s deception, like when she wanted his urine sample for a random test to save her nursing license. He also had been experimenting with drugs and alcohol which his mother did not know. His mother also suffered from mental illness and attempted suicide. She tried to kill him and went to jail for domestic violence misdemeanor charge. Vance writes about lying to the court to help her release from prison. As he grew older, it became increasingly difficult for him to live with his mother. He writes “In Jackson, I was the grandson of the toughest woman (referring to his grandmother) anyone knew;…in Ohio, I was the abandoned son of a man I hardly knew and a woman I wished I didn’t” (p. 13). He describes his home with his mother “as a hob of misery.”
Vance partly attributes his and millions of other children’s unstable, abusive childhood in middle America to its economic restructuring, changing culture and values. This is where Vance lays out the distinction between the educated, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) of the Northeast and the Appalachian whites of Scots-Irish descent like his grandparents, who lacked a college degree. The latter, whom he calls Hill people, descended from Appalachia, in search of jobs and a better life in middle America—Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Vance describes himself as a progeny of traditionally poor whites, who originally earned their livelihood as day laborers in the Southern slave economy, then became share croppers, followed by coal miners, mechanists, and mill workers in more recent years. In the 1980s, Vance’s grandparents migrated from Kentucky to Middletown, OH, in search of a better future for themselves and their children. At the time, Middletown, OH, was an economically vibrant city with the steel industry, shopping centers, and restaurants. In their new town, Vance’s grandparents realized the middle-class comfort (house, car, and other amenities), but the success was short-lived. The steel industries that provided middle class lives closed.
Vance draws deep similarities between the decline of middle America and the inner city neighborhoods that William Julius Wilson described so eloquently in his book, The Truly Disadvantaged, in 1987. He writes that “Wilson’s book spoke to me…described my home perfectly” (p. 144). When manufacturing and steel industries collapsed and middle-class jobs were gone, the vibrant Middletown became a desolate city—with closed shopping malls, abandoned shops with boarded up or broken windows. Payday lenders and cash for gold stores replaced some of the previous stores. With the loss of industrial economy, social institutions and cultural centers also declined; bad neighborhoods with broken windows and abandoned homes used by drug dealers increased. He observes, “A street that was once the pride of Middletown today serves as a meeting spot for druggies and dealers” (p. 51). Neighborhoods became socially isolated with a high concentration of noncollege educated, unemployed, and poor whites. According to Vance “no one in our families had gone to college,…we knew no one at a prestigious out-of-state school; and everyone knew at least one young adult who was unemployed or did not have a job at all” (p. 56). He points to the lack of response from social institutions such as the churches in helping children. Like Wilson, Vance also talks about the social decay—a decline in labor force attachment and work ethic—among adult able-bodied men and women. All around him were jobless men; those who had a job were not interested in holding on to it. It was normal to declare bankruptcy. They discussed the value of hard work and found comfort in blaming the system or the people who looked different than themselves for their miseries. They abused children, women, and drugs. Vance found himself in a world of irrational behavior and paradoxes: People bought expensive goods using high-interest loans or relied on government assistance but complained about others’ misuse of it.
The book shows, through the author’s own experience, the adverse impact of the struggles young mothers and grandmothers on children in middle America. He describes children’s perpetual exposure to family violence, verbal abuse, and unsafe, chaotic home environment. Added to this are bad public schools that are unable to send most students to college. Rampant drug misuse has resulted in the premature death of adults and children. He reminds the readers that “we hill people aren’t doing very well” (p. 22) in Middletown. Vance thinks that the economic decline is the cause of family instability and rise in alcohol and drug use in middle America.
Vance gives credit to his grandmother for his escape and success. Like other children, Vance got away with lousy grades until 1 day when his grandmother started monitoring is progress in education. He is thankful to his grandparents: “Mamaw and papaw were, without question or qualification, the best things that ever happened to me” (p. 23). It is from his grandparents that he learned “the value of love and stability and the life lessons that most people learn from their parents” (p. 23). His grandmother, also a teen mother, did not have a high school degree but placed a very high value on his education. Her marriage with her alcohol abusing husband was violent; she ultimately divorced him and lived a single life. Vance’s poor grades, use of alcohol and drugs triggered his grandmother to interfere and help put his life back together. She believed in him. She often reminded him that if anyone in her family “made it,” it would be him (p. 129). She provided a quiet, safe, stable, and permanent home to study during the last 3 years of his high school. He writes, “Those three years with Mamaw—uninterrupted and alone—saved me. I didn’t notice the causality of the change, how living with her turned my life around” (p. 138).
Hillbilly Elegy is about the life of a white male with a law degree from Yale University. Ordinarily, this would imply privilege. The author’s struggle and journey to get where he is today shows that there are white children and families that are suffering in middle America and need help. The book offers a window into the economic transformation and material poverty of middle America and how it has been impacting millions of children’s well-being. It offers powerful imagery of the lived experience and makes the case that middle America’s social institutions and values have changed for the worse. The book also offers new insights into the divided social and political climate of our country. The author calls for more attention to economic opportunities and social interactions aimed at supporting children and families. This is an important book for social work students, researchers, and policy makers interested in working to rebuild communities, families, and the lives of children in middle America. They will find the book a useful read to understand middle America’s social and economic transformation and to explore strategies to help these communities.