Summary of Hillbilly Elegy (Unabridged‪)‬

"I grew up in a world where everyone worried about how they'd pay for Christmas. Now I live in one where opportunities abound for the wealthy and privileged to shower their generosity on the community's poor." - J.D. Vance

"No matter our financial position, our family somehow managed to spend just more than we had on holiday shopping. We didn't qualify for credit cards, but there were many ways to spend money you didn't have." - J.D. Vance

"Some people may conclude that I come from a clan of lunatics. But the stories made me feel like hillbilly royalty, because these were classic good-versus-evil stories, and my people were on the right side. My people were extreme, but extreme in the service of something - defending a sister's honor or ensuring that a criminal paid for his crimes." - J.D. Vance

"The truth is hard, and the hardest truths for hill people are the ones they must tell about themselves. Jackson is undoubtedly full of the nicest people in the world; it is also full of drug addicts and at least one man who can find the time to make eight children but can't find the time to support them. It is unquestionably beautiful, but its beauty is obscured by the environmental waste and loose trash that scatters the countryside." - J.D. Vance

What you will learn from listening to this audiobook:


What life is truly like for families of the South, Appalachia, and the Rust Belt.
The core of the issues that have plagued working-class whites and "hillbillies" for decades in America.
How the author was able to overcome those issues and become a successful graduate of Yale Law School
What "Hillbilly culture" truly is and how it has contributed to the stagnation of a large portion of the country.
How the psychological effects of adverse childhood experiences continue to affect many of them throughout their entire lives.
That it is possible to escape the bonds of your social class no matter where you come from.