Review of *Appalachian Reckoning*

Partially birthed from the 2018 Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) conference, Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (2019) is a community project from Appalachian themselves exploring what ‘Appalachian’ means to them, offering a myriad of diverse voices that challenge stereotypes of Appalachia as a homogenous place. During the 2018 ASA conference, activists from STAY (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) and Y’ALL (Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners) protested J.D. Vance’s, author of Hillbilly Elegy (2016), presence as a headliner panelist, illustrating the tumultuous struggle over which Appalachian voices and representations of Appalachia are viewed as ‘authentic’  and which voices are eclipsed, erased, and ignored (12-13).  Appalachian Reckoning follows in the legacy of Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change (1993), Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes (2000), Transforming Places: Lessons from Appalachia (2012), and What You’re Getting Wrong About Appalachia (2018) in fighting against stereotypes of the region created by outside voices that relies on caricatures of the Appalachian people by “passing the microphone” (13).

Inherently important to this work is the concept of the archive—Appalachian Reckoning is at its heart a collection that challenges the historic pattern of representations of Appalachia being constructed by powerful outsiders (10). Consisting of three section titled “Interrogating,” “Responding,” and “Beyond Hillbilly Elegy,” Appalachian Reckoning creates a platform for over 40 activists, scholars, and artists to confront J.D. Vance’s portrayal of the region in Hillbilly Elegy and uplift historically marginalized voices, such as LGBTQIA+ Appalachians and Affrilachians (Black Appalachians).

The first section, “Interrogating,” invites historian T.R.C Hutton, poet Jeff Mann, sociologist Dwight B. Billings, historian Elizabeth Catte, and a host of other scholars to critically consider the success of Hillbilly Elegy, its accuracy in describing the region and its people, and the impact it has had on cultural constructions of Appalachia. Perhaps most interesting is Hutton’s consideration in “Hillbilly Elitism,” of “Appalachian Otherness” and the continual (re-)definitions of the region from voices outside of Appalachia (21). A component of this criticism is Hillbilly Elegy’s embrace of the ‘pull-yourself-up-by-your bootstraps’ myth that blames marginalized peoples for their own marginalization and is an integral supporter of neoliberal capitalism (23).

Billings continues this assessment in “Once Upon a Time in ‘Trumpalachia:’ Hillbilly Elegy, Personal Choice, and the Blame game,” arguing that Hillbilly Elegy is “an advertisement for capitalist neoliberalism and personal choice,” which is extremely important if you consider the political context in which it was published (38). Many political pundits, urban liberals, and news networks turned to Hillbilly Elegy to understand the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Why would ‘poor whites’ vote against their interest, essentially ‘shooting themselves in the foot,’ by voting for Donald Trump? J.D. Vance offered a simple answer: because Appalachians are culturally depraved and refuse to help themselves get out of bad situations (46). The scholars and activists included in Appalachian Reckoning offer a myriad of other answers that address the complexity and nuance of our current cultural, social, and political climate.

The second section, “Responding,” includes writer Ivy Brashear, scholar William Turner, and novelist Robert Gripe, as well as photographers, bloggers, and poets. “Responding” invites community voices to define the Appalachian region from the perspective of their own lived experience. These individual reactions to Hillbilly Elegy respond to ways the text spoke to or strayed from their experiences as Appalachians (7). What I found most compelling was Turner’s reflection, “Black Hillbillies Have No Time for Elegies,” on the Appalachian Black working class and the erasure of Affrilachians from the cultural understandings and memory of Appalachia (231).

The last section, “Beyond Hillbilly Elegy,” moves past J.D. Vance’s representation of Appalachia and raises the voices of Appalachians in re-claiming the representations of their home from outsider’s constructions of place. As co-editors Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll explain, the contributors from this section target head on how to define a place for yourself which it has historically been defined for you (10). Authors in “Beyond Hillbilly Elegy” include English professors Meredith McCarroll, Kirstin Squint, Edward Karshner, independent scholar Rachel Wise, as well as poets, novelists, and writers. Karshner’s piece, “These Stories Sustain Me: The Wyrd-ness of my Appalachia,” is a crucial piece of this section. It explores how folk stories, myths, and other stories can challenge the damaging “….role [that] narratives and counternarratives have in constructing Appalachian identity” when told from outside the region (279). As he explains:

We are the stories we tell. For this reason, I feel an important step in reclaiming the vitality of our Appalachian Identity is to reconsider our own folk narratives in order to inoculate ourselves against the disruptive and dangerous media narratives that distort Appalachian metaphysics into Hillbilly porn (279).

Appalachian Reckoning is successful in archiving a diverse collection of Appalachian voices heralding from a variety of academic disciplines, lived experiences and identities, and educational backgrounds that have historically been displaced in representations of Appalachia. However, what Hillbilly Elegy achieved in reach, gripping narrative, and readability/accessibility, Appalachian Reckoning will find challenging to match. If the goal is to redefine the region in collective memory, in addition to raising Appalachian voices, Appalachian Reckoning may face roadblocks. With a Hillbilly Elegy movie in production and over a million books sold, Appalachian Reckoning’s collection of personal narratives, photographs, essays, scholarly examination, and poetry will find it difficult to redefine Appalachia against Vance’s portrayals of the region and its people.

In the academic setting, I would highly recommend Appalachian Reckoning to join keystone Appalachian Studies texts, such as Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1962), Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870 – 1920 (1978), and Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the Nineteenth Century (1995) as a source exploring contemporary Appalachia. This text would also fit well in syllabuses exploring regional studies and the politics of place, representations of place and public memory, and social justice/activist history. In general, I would suggest it being read with Hillbilly Elegy, or better still, replacing it entirely.