Hillbilly Elegy

support and a baby on the way—
carelessly tossing aside a good job with
excellent health insurance. More
troublingly, when it was all over, he
thought something had been done to him.
There is a lack of agency here—a
feeling that you have little control over
your life and a willingness to blame
everyone but yourself. This is distinct
from the larger economic landscape of
modern America.
It’s worth noting that although I focus
on the group of people I know—
working-class whites with ties to
Appalachia—I’m not arguing that we
deserve more sympathy than other folks.
This is not a story about why white