NYTimes | In late July, The American Conservative ran an interview with J. D. Vance that drew so much traffic it briefly crippled
the central nervous system of the magazine’s website. The interviewer’s
last line implored readers to have a look at Mr. Vance’s publishing
debut, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”
Ever since, his book has hovered at high altitude on Amazon, seldom
dipping below No. 10.
After
reading “Hillbilly Elegy,” you can easily understand why. This is a
historically peculiar election cycle, boisterously disrupted by
outsiders, one of whom found the perfect host body in the Republican
Party and became its presidential nominee. An investigation of voter
estrangement has never felt more urgent, and we’re certainly not getting
one from the lacquered chatterers on the boob tube.
Now,
along comes Mr. Vance, offering a compassionate, discerning
sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the
politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump.
Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has
inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized
election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both
Democrats and Republicans.
Imagine that.
On the checklist of modern privilege, Mr. Vance, 31, has the top four in the bag: He is white, male, straight and Protestant.
