The political book of the year - Sunday Times. "You will not read a more important book about America this year" - Economist. "The best book about alienation in America" - Evening Standard. "The memoir that captivates America... vividly describes the despair and disappointment of the working class in America" - Sunday Times. "Hillbilly Elegy" is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis – that of the white working class in America. The decline of this group, a demographic segment of our country that has been slowly dissolving for forty years, has been reported with increasing frequency and concern, but never before has it been described so urgently from the inside. J.D. Vance tells the true story of what social, regional, and class-specific decline feels like when you are born into it. The story of the Vance family hopefully begins in post-war America. J.D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor.".