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

J.D. Vance

You've probably heard that this is the book to read if you want to understand the blue-collar and Rust-Belt voters who helped elect Trump. And it does give readers a personal perspective from J.D. Vance, who comes from a family of hillbillies (that's the word Vance uses) that moved from Kentucky to an Ohio steel town. It's a really good read for the analysis, yes, but even more so for the portrait Vance paints of his family. His grandparents are tough, funny characters, and his mother is a tragic figure. J.D. ends up lifting himself beyond his circumstances, becoming a Marine and then an attorney after graduating from Yale Law School. Even if Trump hadn't been elected, this would have been a worthwhile, thoroughly absorbing memoir.