"White Trash" Historian Nancy Isenberg on J.D. Vance, "Hillbilly Elegy" & Class in America
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Published 2024-07-18
American historian and the author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg, calls Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance a peddler of the "self-made man myth." Isenberg criticizes Hilbilly Elegy, the memoir that propelled him to fame, as a deceptive way of selling this myth and the conservative politics it comes with. "Much of what his memoir says tells us nothing about real class conditions," Isenberg says, pointing to her own historical and sociological research on the rural poor in the United States.
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All Comments (21)
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It's absolutely class warfare at this point.
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Poor vs. Poor for a slice of the Pie has always been the strategy of the Rulers.
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The billionaire class views everyone who isn't them as dispensable.
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"class" yep... no one talks about it in America
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Vance was not chosen for Youth, Vance was chosen because of the support of The Heritage Foundation and the Money of Peter Thiel.
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We are undeniably purposefully ignorant!
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Vance’s greatest supporters have been Yale Professor Amy Chua and Peter Thiel. Chua mentored the writing of “Hillbilly Elegy”, and Thiel had Vance installed in positions at tech investment groups where he did nothing, then Thiel bought Vance a Senate seat.
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A self made man is about as likely as a self laid egg. Mark Twain
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Rich people are awful around the world.
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Trump also picked Vance because Trump needs Ohio to win
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JD Vance has shown his true colors switching allegiance to Trump after deploring him all for the Vice Presidency position.
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I grew up in a one-room shack and was dirt-floor poor. My dad was a WW2 disabled veteran and I barely graduated from high school. I went into the Navy in 1962 and used my GI benefits to attend college, and just like Vance, I attended law school and practiced law in Florida for 30 years. What many people fail to realize is that hundreds of thousands of us weren't born with silver spoons in our mouths, all we had was a nation that allowed us Hillbillys to achieve success. Merica
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He is not a self made man...Peter Thiel created most of the wealth he has
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"They're taking Black jobs"-TFG
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Thank you to Nancy Isenberg for a learned view of history and a reminder of class issues
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It's easy...just like JDV has done, just find a billionaire to sponsor you for any position you don't deserve and aren't qualified for and do you'll be fine no problem!
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Thoroughly enjoyed this author and the reporting. I will get this book, as it focuses on the problem we all have together.
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Thank you, Nancy, finally someone calls it like it is and accurately…”Trumpsters” don’t read, they just repeat…
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I’ve read her book 4 times and use it as reference frequently.
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She is so right. Poverty is not a race issue. We need to help the poor of all races. This woman is speaking the truth and we need more of this kind of straight talk
