Summary

Catte opens by reflecting on common impressions of Appalachia she encountered while living in Texas with her husband. She writes that perspectives on the region appeared to be influenced by a book by J.D Vance called Hillbilly Elegy, a nonfiction memoir that purports to offer a means of understanding “the lives of disaffected Trump voters” (7) in the Appalachian region, positing them as a locus for understanding America’s most severe social problems. Yet Catte notes that these issues – such as poverty, racism, and addiction – can be found all over the U.S, and are not particular to the Appalachian region. Books like Hillbilly Elegy and the media during the 2016 presidential election have reductively depicted Appalachians as largely as white, working-class individuals with regressive views. With this in mind, Catte writes that she aims to rectify these inflexible representations of Appalachians, by way...