Today, we’re concluding What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachiaby Elizabeth Catte. In two weeks we’ll dive into The Hot Hand by Ben Cohen all about the mystery and science of streaks. In a few weeks, we’ll also vote on the next round of books, so email me or leave comments if you’ve got something nonfiction you want to see on the ballot.
But first, let’s wrap Appalachia!
What’s something you learned about the region? What’s a piece of history you didn’t know?
How do you view cameras, photography, and coverage of the region now? Are you more suspicious of parachute coverage?
Did the book change any views you have about Appalachia?
Did you like it? Would you recommend it?
Have at it! We had some great conversations two weeks ago, so excited to see how folks enjoyed the end of it. Leave a comment below!
I am thankful Numlock made me aware of this book. Elizabeth Catte has a PhD in Public History. She cites sources in abundance. I experienced Hillbilly Elegy as a dishonest book when I read it. J T Vance has presented the characters in Hillbilly Elegy as THE APPALACHIA. Catte shows us a whole other region full of different individuals--people who have fought for justice, workers' rights, decent wages, etc. for decades. She cites J. T. Vance's sources: "Vance cites racist-thinking far more directly than even is critics have indicated." (quoting John Thomason). And the people that Vance presents as Appalachia...one can find drug addicts, drunks, people who don't want to work, people who are always shooting themselves in the foot in all parts of the country. He writes about a type of person and he ties that type of person to the geography of where they live...which is ridiculous when you think about it. Elizabeth Cadde also shows definitively how corporate decisions and corporate actions have decimated the country side, taken good work away, set up situations where people who can get work are paid pitifully and taken advantage of. Appalachia is complex and certainly not limited to the kind of people who are in J. T. Vance's family...he takes his family and extrapolates them as all Appalachia is. Cadde offers factual information about working class voters (and not just white working class voters) in Appalachia. I wish this book were better known. I grew up in Appalachia though I don't live there now (and wish I did.) I know first hand that Hillbilly Elegy is a lie. And now here is a book that a scholar has written that documents the complexity and the rich history of this area in such an important corrective way.
I loved the book and am glad you enjoyed it as well, it's totally the hopes I had for this fun little book club.
Reading your comment, you may like more from Belt Press https://beltpublishing.com/. I've followed their work a lot, and this was the first book I pushed to the book club vote, and there's a ton of great stuff they produce as a small press. Would highly recommend, they're a great shop.
Good evening. The book has deconstructed simple assumptions of the region to show that, like most everything, it’s a lot more complicated.
I appreciated learning more about the region’s history. The book also recalibrated my vanishing appreciation of how large the geography of “Appalachia” truly is.
I saw Chris Offutt’s blurb and was very excited as he is a tremendous author with keen insights into Kentucky and Appalachian culture through his fiction.
I would recommend it. It reminds you that media tropes are normally just lazy to maintain simplicity in their story lines.
Hey! I just finished the read. I really loved this one, it felt like such a perfect length and scope and I really learned a lot about the region. I really, really can't stand parachute and diner style journalism and cringed constantly during a lot of 2016 to 2020 over how major institutions handled things. The ideas in this book were really exciting and I loved learning more about the radical history of the region and how the extractive industry sent money to the very people actively oppressing it.
I think the most challenging part for me (in a good way!) is the "a camera is a gun" part. I'm definitely trying to square my profession -- which by definition ampliflies and takes images and broadcasts them in a wide fashion -- into what is owed to the subjects. I don't really think there's a clean answer here, but having more empathy for subjects is definitely a thing I think about a lot and this book really was provocative in a good way for me on that.
Certainly enjoyed the book, learned some very interesting things about the region and would recommend it to people. The biggest take away I got from this book and reading about this region's working folks is how ill-equipped Hillary Clinton was to reach these voters. Talk about a perfect storm!
I am thankful Numlock made me aware of this book. Elizabeth Catte has a PhD in Public History. She cites sources in abundance. I experienced Hillbilly Elegy as a dishonest book when I read it. J T Vance has presented the characters in Hillbilly Elegy as THE APPALACHIA. Catte shows us a whole other region full of different individuals--people who have fought for justice, workers' rights, decent wages, etc. for decades. She cites J. T. Vance's sources: "Vance cites racist-thinking far more directly than even is critics have indicated." (quoting John Thomason). And the people that Vance presents as Appalachia...one can find drug addicts, drunks, people who don't want to work, people who are always shooting themselves in the foot in all parts of the country. He writes about a type of person and he ties that type of person to the geography of where they live...which is ridiculous when you think about it. Elizabeth Cadde also shows definitively how corporate decisions and corporate actions have decimated the country side, taken good work away, set up situations where people who can get work are paid pitifully and taken advantage of. Appalachia is complex and certainly not limited to the kind of people who are in J. T. Vance's family...he takes his family and extrapolates them as all Appalachia is. Cadde offers factual information about working class voters (and not just white working class voters) in Appalachia. I wish this book were better known. I grew up in Appalachia though I don't live there now (and wish I did.) I know first hand that Hillbilly Elegy is a lie. And now here is a book that a scholar has written that documents the complexity and the rich history of this area in such an important corrective way.
I loved the book and am glad you enjoyed it as well, it's totally the hopes I had for this fun little book club.
Reading your comment, you may like more from Belt Press https://beltpublishing.com/. I've followed their work a lot, and this was the first book I pushed to the book club vote, and there's a ton of great stuff they produce as a small press. Would highly recommend, they're a great shop.
Will definitely check Belt Press out!
Good evening. The book has deconstructed simple assumptions of the region to show that, like most everything, it’s a lot more complicated.
I appreciated learning more about the region’s history. The book also recalibrated my vanishing appreciation of how large the geography of “Appalachia” truly is.
I saw Chris Offutt’s blurb and was very excited as he is a tremendous author with keen insights into Kentucky and Appalachian culture through his fiction.
I would recommend it. It reminds you that media tropes are normally just lazy to maintain simplicity in their story lines.
Hey! I just finished the read. I really loved this one, it felt like such a perfect length and scope and I really learned a lot about the region. I really, really can't stand parachute and diner style journalism and cringed constantly during a lot of 2016 to 2020 over how major institutions handled things. The ideas in this book were really exciting and I loved learning more about the radical history of the region and how the extractive industry sent money to the very people actively oppressing it.
I think the most challenging part for me (in a good way!) is the "a camera is a gun" part. I'm definitely trying to square my profession -- which by definition ampliflies and takes images and broadcasts them in a wide fashion -- into what is owed to the subjects. I don't really think there's a clean answer here, but having more empathy for subjects is definitely a thing I think about a lot and this book really was provocative in a good way for me on that.
Certainly enjoyed the book, learned some very interesting things about the region and would recommend it to people. The biggest take away I got from this book and reading about this region's working folks is how ill-equipped Hillary Clinton was to reach these voters. Talk about a perfect storm!