Subtitled "A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," Vance recounts the struggles of his Appalachian family, who moved from Kentucky coal country to Ohio steel country for jobs and a better life-but are now caught in the demise of the U.S. manufacturing economy and a legacy of poverty, abuse and addiction. Although he mostly hews to the travails of his own family-and those of his Scots-Irish "hillbilly" culture-he deftly weaves into his narrative broad trends and research to help paint a portrait of a white working class in distress.
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