What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia - Paperback

by Elizabeth Catte (Author)

"The most damning critique of Hillbilly Elegy."―The New York Review of Books

"A spiky polemic."--Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker

In recent years and in countless ways, Appalachia has been portrayed as ground zero for America's "forgotten tribe" of white, working-class people--in short, it's "Trump Country." And during the Trump Era, demystifying the region to explain its roots of dysfunction became a national industry, made most popular by J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. But these assessments have only given us a skewed portrait of a region that is actually marked by racial diversity, a storied labor history, and people who fall on all sides of the political spectrum. In What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Elizabeth Catte offers her clear-eyed and uncompromising assessment of America's historical tendency to stereotype Appalachia's people and problems. It's a frank and ferocious insider's perspective that will complicate and illuminate your ideas about one of America's most misunderstood regions.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Catte is a writer and historian from East Tennessee. She holds a PhD in public history from Middle Tennessee State University and is the co-owner of Passel, a historical consulting and development company. She lives in Staunton, VA.