This is a summary of bestselling author J. D. Vance's, "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance." This summary is intended to give you an in depth overview of the key concepts and ideas of the book. At Summary Books, we read every chapter, extract the meaning and leave you with a new perspective and time to spare. We do the work so you can understand the book in minutes, not hours. This concise book summary will help you cut through the 273 page full version of Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance and quickly understand the key concepts and ideas. J.D. Vance didn't write this memoir with the intention of dazzling people with his extraordinary life. He wrote it with the opposite intention; to show people how he came up from an ordinary life that a lot of people in America experience. The only difference was where he ended up when compared to those from similar situations.Vance grew up in an Ohio town in what is known as the Rust Belt. He grew up poor and had a difficult childhood. He was raised mainly by his grandparents while one of his parents fought an on-going battle with addiction. Very few of his relatives had a formal education or passed high school, and the norm was for people who lived his life to follow in their family's footsteps. Luckily for Vance, he was able to beat the odds and go on to college and then to an Ivy League law school. When people look at him and his current success, they assume he came from a background that would've cultivated someone of his caliber. He wrote this memoir to show that not only is that not the case but that he almost threw all of his potentials away before it manifested into what it is now.So many people assume that you have to come from some kind of success in order to be successful. For that reason, a lot of people ignore the poorer families and can't see what kind of impact that kind of lifestyle can have on the children in it. Even for those like Vance who achieved upward mobility, the struggle to leave the demons of their past behind them is almost impossible. Vance also attributes his cultural upbringing to his Scots-Irish heritage, one that is associated with the American term "hillbilly"--a reference to the white working-class living in rural areas. The Scots-Irish hillbillies are proud of their heritage and embrace everything that comes with the name, but they're also, according to Vance, pessimistic. While their plight is real, many outsiders believe that it is a plight that is somewhat self-inflicted based on the choices that the majority of the demographic makes and the lack of jobs available. While economic uncertainty does play a role here, Vance believes that is only one piece of the puzzle. The rest of the equation has to do with how this subculture reacts to a down economy and a lack of work. This memoir seeks to bring light to all of this through the story of one family.