Newly minted vice presidential nominee JD Vance built his speech to the Republican National Convention around his own Appalachian roots. But it wasn’t the first time he had shared his personal story. Long before he was a U.S. senator from Ohio, Vance rose to prominence on the wings of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestselling memoir that many thought captured the essence of Donald Trump’s political resonance in a rural white America ravaged by joblessness, opioid addiction and poverty. The 2016 book set off a fierce debate among scholars and thinkers in the region. Many thought it trafficked in stereotypes and blamed working-class people for their own struggles.
