A welcome and valuable resource for anyone studying or writing about this much-maligned region.
Appalachian writers and scholars rebut the “gross simplifications and stereotypes” of J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (2016).
Often cited as a way to understand the working-class voters who helped elect Donald Trump, Hillbilly Elegy has been a longtime bestseller, will soon become an HBO movie, and has made Vance a media expert on Appalachia. Indeed, it is the most widely read book on the region. Now comes this thoughtful and provocative anthology of essays, poems, and photographs arguing for treatment of Appalachia as a “diverse and complex place.” Edited by Harkins (History/Western Kentucky Univ.; Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon, 2003) and McCarroll (Writing and Rhetoric/Bowdoin Coll.; Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film, 2018), the book ranges widely in its single focus, with contributors variously attacking, defending, or simply critiquing the book. All deem Hillbilly a biased work reinforcing stereotypes of the region’s people (snake handlers, mountain men) as understood by a conservative Kentuckian born into a poor, unstable family who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, attended Yale Law School, and became a venture capitalist. The result, writes Tennessee historian T.R.C. Hutton, is “a Silicon Valley millionaire [who] is now the most popular source for understanding twenty-first century rural poverty.” In other pieces, Kentucky sociologist Dwight B. Billings calls the memoir an ad for “capitalist neoliberalism,” and California law professor Lisa Pruitt, who is “from hillbilly stock,” finds it reminiscent of her childhood but filled with “ill-informed policy prescriptions.” Like others, she believes systemic societal problems—not only personal choice and accountability—help shape regional life. Vance’s defenders say he is entitled to his personal story and to his interpretation of his early social environment. Writer Ivy Brashear, a 10th-generation Appalachian, notes that the book lacks class, heart, and warmth. Others offer nuanced considerations of race, sexuality, and drug use.
A welcome and valuable resource for anyone studying or writing about this much-maligned region.Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-946684-79-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: West Virginia Univ. Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Historical hindsight is always 20/20, as this otherwise thoughtful and well-written comparative biography of two important Civil War commanders shows. On the surface, the lives of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the North and Edward Porter Alexander of the South have little in common. Alexander was a career officer, educated at West Point; Chamberlain was a citizen soldier who taught rhetoric in college before volunteering to fight. Alexander was born on a Virginia plantation; Chamberlain came from rock-ribbed Maine. Beneath these superficial differences, however, Golay (The Civil War, not reviewed) maintains that more united these men than divided them. Both fought in some of the major engagements of the Civil War, and though neither ever rose above middle-level commands, they enjoyed the ear of those more powerful, exerting an influence beyond their rank. Both reached the critical point of their careers at Gettysburg, where Chamberlain's bold defense of Little Round Top arguably saved the battle for the Union, while Alexander's confusion concerning orders and battle strategy led to the disastrous Pickett's charge. Following the war, both men went on to civilian success. Chamberlain became president of Bowdoin College and governor of Maine. Alexander was a successful railroad executive. But neither man, argues Golay—making use of their personal papers and writings—ever escaped his past. The two had found their greatest fulfillment and their true mÇtier as soldiers in the Civil War, and they both wrote and lectured extensively about their experiences. But the author occasionally judges his subjects with the wisdom of hindsight, as when he claims that the men never really understood the respective causes for which they fought (Alexander thought the war was an inevitable part of the country's evolution; Chamberlain viewed war as, Golay says, ``a test of character''). A riveting portrait of two men who felt they had outlived their historical moment.
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-517-59285-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Essays about relationships between lesbians and gay men highlight fertile common ground in the lavender landscape and people it with memorable characters. Lesbian author Nestle (A Restricted Country, not reviewed) and recently deceased gay anthology editor Preston (A Member of the Family, 1992, etc.), themselves close friends, strive to correct the historical record on gay life and co-ed friendships. In contrast to stereotypical accounts depicting lesbians as ``fag hags'' or gay men as sexist pigs, these reflections perhaps signal the arrival of, as one author puts it, a ``new generation of postsexist, coalition-building queers.'' The subjects of these very personal essays are people of all ages, in and out of the closet, pre- and post-Stonewall. Sexy, resonant, and illuminating, their writing often recounts difficult decisions: Philip Gambone's not to father a child with lesbian friends (``The Kid I Already Have''), and Susan Fox Rogers's not to become sexual with her gay male rock- climbing partner after an exhilarating climb (``Golden Bars''). Some pieces are straightforward, like Lisa Davis's paean to her lifelong friend, Paul (``Old Squirrel Head, Mama, and Me''); others surprise, like Robert F. Reid-Pharr's musings on ``Living as a Lesbian'' in a black, gay male body. Other highlights are James Merrett's essay about his marriage to his Latino lover's lesbian sister, who needed a green card (``My Lover and My Wife''), and Nisa Donnelly's freewheeling ``Faggots as Animus.'' Most of the essays have not been published elsewhere—except, disappointingly, those by Paul Monette, Jewelle Gomez, and Cherrie Moraga. Some of the writing is weak, but each story is illuminating, showing lesbians and gay men playing indispensable roles in each other's lives as mentors, muses, best friends, families, even lovers. Richly rewarding.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-251055-X
Page Count: 356
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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