A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Benjamin J. Montoya, PhD
About the Author
J. D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to the National Review and The New York Times. He works as an investor at a leading venture capital firm. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family.
Introduction
Now the Republican nominee for Vice President, Vance grew up in a rather backwoods part of Ohio.
Summary
Chapter 1
Before moving to Middletown, Vance grew up in the small-town of Jackson in southeastern Kentucky’s coal country. This was a typical rural town with almost nothing in it. But in this kind of town reside people who are often very poor, have to learn harsh truths about life from an early age, and are often presented with the kind of violence that is certainly not best suited for children, much less anyone else. For example, his grandmother, known as Mamaw, was known for nearly killing two men for trying to steal the family’s cow.
After Vance grew up and relocated to Middletown, he saw firsthand what happens in factories where he worked before leaving the area, seeing friends lose their job and then feel as though they were victims.
What kind of lessons do people learn in these settings?
- In these settings, there is a common feeling that blames circumstances rather than taking personal responsibility.
- These kinds of tough environments have been described by sociologists as having “significantly predicted resiliency.”
Chapter 2
Vance’s grandparents had moved from Kentucky to Ohio, part of a generation that moved north to find employment. The new industrial plants brought about jobs, but the old saying “You can take the boy out of Kentucky, but you cannot take the Kentucky out of the boy” still rang true.
Despite having to make this kind of move, a certain kind of pride in who they were stuck with them. They instilled that sentiment into their family, with their colloquialisms like not getting “too big for your britches.” Some of the other sayings are a bit too brash to be included here, but the result is still the same—Vance’s grandparents encouraged pride in who they are and an active agency over their lives. That is, they need to take responsibility for who they become and what they do.
Chapter 3
Despite the positive lessons Vance learned from his Mamaw and Papaw, things were not as positive as they may have seemed. Part of the difficulty of growing up in areas like this is that people’s problems can be kept quiet; people can be very isolated, and this was a time well before everything became so public—no social media, no cell phones, and maybe one phone in a house.
Mamaw and Papaw’s relationship with one another was horrendous. When Papaw went to work, it was to earn a living, yes, but also to get out of the house, away from Mamaw. She once told him if he came home drunk again that she would kill him. The next time, sure enough, she poured gasoline all over him, and she set him on fire, nearly killing him. After that, they lived separately but ended up working together to help Vance’s mom get by when she struggled to do so on her own; they would lend her money and help with childcare.
Chapter 4
The area Vance grew up in is a shadow of what it had been. Nowadays if someone wants to go to a rough city that has lots of places to get payday loans, etc., then Middletown is the place to be. Vance and his friends used to joke that Middletown did not even get its own name; it is in the middle between Cincinnati and Dayton, so it is a “town” in the middle. Today this is a town that still has some wealthy sections, but it also has lots of poverty and underemployed youth. What happened? With the decline in American industrialism, companies like those that Vance’s Papaw had worked for consolidated with other companies and remained different. It is such now that a lot of men who would have been fully gainfully employed as laborers now struggle to work more than 20-30 hours per week. How did this impact Vance?
His grandparents, despite being the imperfect people they are, raised their daughter and basically their grandchild in this setting, instilling a different outlook on life in Vance. They made sure he had lots of children’s books around and even helped him learned mathematics at home. Vance recalls a day at school when he did not know what multiplication was, but one day after complaining about it, his Papaw led him before dinner to understand it.
Chapter 5
Vance grew up in what seems to be a never-ending stream of domestic chaos. On the surface, when his mother would meet and marry someone new, it seemed to be a positive thing, at least on the outside, but then the yelling, screaming, and fighting would commence over money and more. These happened so often that it became normal to Vance. These kinds of things often create all kinds of stress-related issues for children that surface in the form of stomach pains.
These events only worsened to the point where he thought his mother was going to kill him, seemingly tried to, and got arrested in the process, but then Vance lied in Court so she would not go to prison. This chapter is filled with a lot of graphic language and imagery related to these horrific scenes.
Vance, however, continued to grow and learn more about the world as he visited extended family in Napa, California. He learned a lot about different ways of life, and the experience of flying. And how, even though his family lived on the other side of the country, they were still very much like them—hillbilly transplants.
Chapter 6
Despite all that has been said about the conflict and insane actions Vance’s family has been part of, there was always a sense of religion despite not being tied to any church community. It was as if God was important to them without ever attending a church. This has become more common in areas like Middletown where church attendance is quite low.
Vance’s first real exposure to a church community was while he lived with his biological father who had given him up for adoption. It was during this time that Vance felt that he became a Christian, started reading the Bible, attending church regularly, and reading other Christian books. The church seems to have been a very strict Pentecostal church, but despite its idiosyncrasies, Vance loved his church and his biological father who took him to it.
Chapter 7
A distinct transition in Vance’s life was the death of his Papaw. It came rather unexpectedly, and they found him dead a day after he had died. His death was followed by a funeral where a lot of people spoke kindly about Vance’s Papaw, but Vance especially spoke up about how much of a father-figure Papaw was for him. Vance had a kind of marry-go-round of father-figures, but his Papaw was a constant. This was a major loss for Vance because he used to go to him when it was difficult to stay elsewhere; this could no longer happen, especially when he could have used it the most.
Vance’s mother, as might be imagined, went from bad to worse; if nearly going to prison for chasing down and nearly hurting Vance was not bad enough, she also began to develop a drug-addition. She claimed it was a prescription, but it later became clear she was stealing from her patients. She wound up in a rehab facility for it. This left Vance and his sister Lindsay to look out for themselves. It was such that if they missed enough school, Lindsay would just sign in place of Vance’s mother. His mother would eventually get released from the facility and come home.
Chapter 8
For the next season of Vance’s life, his mother remarried but not the man she had been dating for multiple years. Vance saw so many different men in his mom’s life that it was quite shocking, but he would end up meeting even another as his life went on. His mother’s relationships were almost always filled with fighting, arguing, and a repeat of those things with whomever she ended up with next. It was a painful cycle to watch.
As might be imagined, this kind of cycle of living took an actual toll on Vance, such that when his mother suggested he move to a nearby city 45 minutes, away from everyone else, he and his mother feuded over the matter, and they even got a therapist involved. Vance did not end up moving then, but he only moved after his mother married someone from her work.
Vance’s life began to show signs of struggle; he did not get involved with hard drugs, but alcohol and a stash of weed from one of his new stepbrothers were things he got into. He nearly failed his first year of high school. He still spent a fair amount of time with his Mamaw and his biological father.
Chapter 9
It can hardly be resisted to look at where Vance is today and wonder how any of what has happened to this point in his life could result in the success he has achieved. He, however, attributes it to the safe haven he had at his Mamaw’s house. She was far from perfect, having done some quite insane things, but she provided a place of peace and a positive influence on Vance’s life. She encouraged hard work, talked with him about typical questions children face, and helped him process some of the things he saw while starting to work. It was also during this time that he became far more self-aware and started to consider how his life would turn out.
Chapter 10
Given the influence of his Mamaw, Vance knew that getting a college education would be important, but as he and his Mamaw reflected on the cost of going, getting loans, and figuring out how to complete financial aid paperwork, they were hesitant. Vance instead ended up going to the Marine Corp. Vance’s time in the military was formative; he knew how to do very little as an adult, and the military assumes no knowledge of anything. They oversee everything, even after work is over. It was an excellent learning and training ground for Vance as he needed this time to help him mature.
Part of the difficulty of leaving was knowing that Mamaw would likely not outlive his time in the military. His feeling that she would not live much longer ended up becoming a reality; she died during his time there, and he got to travel back to be with her, but she was already unconscious by that time. That was a major loss, as Mamaw was his mother; in fact, he and his sister reminded their actual mother that Mamaw was their mother too. However, the military helped Vance determine what he wanted out of his life and how to achieve it.
Chapter 11
For many, life in college is a time for partying, hanging out, barely passing classes, and just focusing on having fun. This was not the experience Vance had because he had no choice but to work multiple jobs, sleep very little, and take as many courses as possible to graduate as quickly as possible.
Vance, admittedly, pushed on himself a little too hard, and would, at times, become quite ill. But he pushed through it all successfully and was accepted into an Ivy League Law School. This is markedly different from many, if not most, of the people he grew up with.
Chapter 12
Life at Yale was completely different from any life he had known; he was now living and studying with people who came from privilege. His peers expected to earn $160k plus starting, and that kind of income was, and still is, quite unheard of in Middletown. Vance was also somewhat of a unicorn at Yale; when he told his story, people listened and were intrigued because he was so different.
Vance also had to learn to step up his academic game, as his writing had not been up to par. It was also here that he began to see how the rest of the world looked at his upbringing and, in reverse, how different his peers lived compared to him. He noticed that especially during the first, and last time, he took one of his peers to Cracker Barrel only to realize the degree of difference between his upbringing and that of the rich. It left him wondering why being with successful people felt so different.
Chapter 13
Vance’s time at Yale taught him several social and networking lessons that he had never known could have existed. He used to think finding a job meant applying for jobs online endlessly; that is far from what actually happens most of the time. Nowadays the best jobs come from networking and contacting trusted people who make introductions. If Yale was anything to Vance, it was a place where that happened automatically. From professors to potential employers who visited campus, job opportunities came his way often.
Vance also had to learn how to interact with these environments because, again, he grew up in a hillbilly environment. He learned what it meant to wear a suit, to make sure shoes and belts match, and that he needed to consider the entirety of his situation before making a decision. He was slated to take a position that would take him far from his now wife, but instead, after careful counsel and consideration, they both found positions in Northern Kentucky and married. Having grown up as a hillbilly certainly did not prepare him to deal well with these opportunities, but with the help of those around him, he succeeded quite well.
Chapter 14
People often struggle to break away entirely from what they grew up with and, when they see something different, it shocks them, even if what they see is quite normal. When Vance visited his wife’s family, he was surprised by the lack of chaos. If one adjective is characteristic of the hillbilly upbringing narrated thus far, it is certainly chaos, to the highest degree. But now that he saw the opposite, it felt strange.
Furthermore, when he and his now spouse faced difficulty, she did not respond the same way he was used to seeing, she challenged him, and she forgave him. It was an entirely different way of dealing with others than the domestic violence he was raised seeing almost everywhere he turned. As a hillbilly, the war in his household was normal, but that is not normal elsewhere. He had to learn how to grow as a person instead of reacting like he had seen. Despite his success, his actual mother was not able to attend his graduation; she claimed to be off of drugs at the time, but she did not make it.
Chapter 15
Vance’s mother continued to struggle with drugs and homelessness, and he found himself helping her out again, even after graduating from law school and becoming successful. He found himself paying for a hotel for her for a week so she could avoid being homeless and get back on her feet. He is able to help her now, and he is able to find the balance to do so.
One cannot help but wonder how the issues that the working-class deals with can be met, addressed, and successfully dealt with, as if solving a kind of Rubix cube, but these problems are not that simple. They are complex, and when a large part of the society around them is living in Section 8 housing, their problems at home cannot be solved at school. Vance has tried to address and reflect on these problems, as many have, and there is no one magic fix. Having crucial supporters in the background like Vance had mattered, but for many, these people do not exist. The government cannot make a new policy that addresses all of these problems, much less this more basic problem of a lack of support system at home.
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