Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance

Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me.

Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.

There is a lack of agency here—a feeling that you have little control over your life and a willingness to blame everyone but yourself.

I thought about losing my temper with Mom or Lindsay or Mamaw, and how those were among the few times Papaw ever showed a mean streak, because, as he once told me, “the measure of a man is how he treats the women in his family.” His wisdom came from experience, from his own earlier failures with treating the women in his family well.

As a teacher at my old high school told me recently, “They want us to be shepherds to these kids. But no one wants to talk about the fact that many of them are raised by wolves.”

The lesson? Powerful people sometimes do things to help people like me without really understanding people like me.

ACEs are traumatic childhood events, and their consequences reach far into adulthood. The trauma need not be physical. The following events or feelings are some of the most common ACEs: being sworn at, insulted, or humiliated by parents being pushed, grabbed, or having something thrown at you feeling that your family didn’t support each other having parents who were separated or divorced living with an alcoholic or a drug user living with someone who was depressed or attempted suicide watching a loved one be physically abused.

Children with multiple ACEs are more likely to struggle with anxiety and depression, to suffer from heart disease and obesity, and to contract certain types of cancers. They’re also more likely to underperform in school and suffer from relationship instability as adults. Even excessive shouting can damage a kid’s sense of security and contribute to mental health and behavioral issues down the road.

Chaos begets chaos. Instability begets instability. Welcome to family life for the American hillbilly.