From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.
But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
© 2016 HarperAudio (Ljudbok): 9780062477521
Utgivningsdatum
Ljudbok: 28 juni 2016
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.
But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
© 2016 HarperAudio (Ljudbok): 9780062477521
Utgivningsdatum
Ljudbok: 28 juni 2016
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Linda
7 dec. 2020
Fantastiskt bra, läs den!
null
18 nov. 2016
Intresssant blandning av författarens egna livserfarenheter och samhällsanalys. Det enda dåliga är att han läser för fort!
Henrik
12 okt. 2021
Intressant livshistoria, medioker litteratur.
Anna
2 nov. 2016
Rekomenderas!
Malin
20 juli 2021
En väldigt intressant bok om en annorlunda uppväxt och en del av USA som sällan nämns.
Jimmy
21 dec. 2021
Sjukt bra
Linda
18 nov. 2020
Mycket bra och intressant bok. Välskriven och underhållande samtidigt som den bemöter allvarliga ämnen. En inspiration att alla kan lyckas genom vilja och val.
Lisa
7 juli 2022
What a fantastic, heartwarming and tragic story. Thank-you so mich J D for sharing insights from tour life and the society that you grew up in. All the best!
Anne
8 jan. 2022
I very much would like JD Vance to tell me what exactly the big orange lump of an xpresident has done for poor people? Since he's changed his mind, that is...Stopped listening when I read he changed his mind from 2016 in favour of anti democratic movements. Don't spend any time on this!
Dan
14 maj 2021
Lyssnat två gånger. Stolthet, aggressivitet och intelligens - klarsynt om sin uppväxt och andras situation i ett ”problemområde” i USA:s inland. Och en rags-to-richess-story som inte är så storslagen som brukligt är i staterna.
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