Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll

Yes, arguably, Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance is a book that has to be reckoned with. It was on national best-seller lists for about a year starting in the summer of 2016. And the New York Times named it one of six books to help understand Trump’s win.  And it is being made into a movie by Ron Howard. As soon as it was published, I made my really negative review public. Now, this is the second book-length response – and I hope the last. There is a solid argument for those who care about Appalachia to be pro-active and to not dignify stereotypes with responses. And, to its credit, this book does devote about 1/3 of its space to attempting to present a positive perspective on the region – after more pages of direct responses. Although most of the essays here are by mainstream academics, the editors have made a real effort to include artistic renderings of the region, in poetry and in photographs as well as traditional essays, and to include some people of color and some who identify as q