Hillbilly

Hillbilly is the term Vance uses to describe people like him. Hillbillies trace their routes to Scots-Irish families in rural Appalachia and now also live in many small Midwestern cities.

Scots-Irish

Scots-Irish refers to the group of immigrants who settled in Appalachia and whose descendants Vance refers to as hillbillies.

Jackson, KY

Jackson is a town in rural Kentucky and the ancestral home of Vance’s family. The author uses Jackson to symbolize rural hillbilly communities as a whole.

Middletown, OH

Middletown is a small, formerly industrial city in Ohio that is home to many hillbilly families who migrated from rural Kentucky.

Armco

Armco was a steel company that provided jobs to numerous hillbilly families following WWII, facilitating their migration away from rural Kentucky.

Rust Belt

The Rust Belt is a general term referring to the small industrial cities in the Midwestern United States.

Appalachia

Appalachia refers...