For this post I’m going to do something unusual. Kurt Andersen did Charlie Rose so I’m going to post a snippet from that interview.
The other thing I want to show is a talk he gave at the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival before the release of the book.
The Charlie Rose interview is a lot more refined in terms of how the author presents his book. It’s much more of a raw idea and conversation in the Aspen Ideas talk. Both I think give a picture of the author’s thoughts.
Here’s a few articles about Storyville, New Orlean’s old vice quarter. These articles include photos from EJ Bellocq, a photographer that hung out in Storville and took pictures of the prostitutes who worked it.
http://www.storyvilledistrictnola.com/portraits.html
http://www.nola.com/300/2017/02/storyville_brothels_new_orleans_photographs_0099183.html
https://www.slrlounge.com/1912-storyville-prostitutes-new-orleans-nsfw/
Here are some photos from the Johnstown Flood Museum, borrowed from the Library of Congress, to give you an idea of the devastation.
I could not find an interview from 1968, the year the book was published, with McCullough talking about the book. Nor have I found anything of him recently talking about the book. Instead, here’s a video from The Kalb Report interviewing McCullough.
The author gave a talk with the New York Review of Books and the New York Public Library made a list of books he had recommended in the talk. In the comments readers give their personal recommendations as well.
Here’s a Google Map of the author’s Blatimore neighborhood. Like before, take a walk around with Google’s street feature.
This month I’m encouraging you to listen to the audiobook version of the book. If you choose to read over listen to the book, that is fine. The discussion will be August 28. If you have a friend who wants to join the discussion they can pick up a copy at the circulation desk.
Here are some reactions from a few people who identify as ‘hillbillies’ and more established media members responding to Vance’s book.
R. Mike Burr: The Self-Serving Hustle of “Hillbilly Elegy”
Aaron M. Renn: Culture, Circumstance, and Agency: Reflections on Hillbilly Elegy
G.W. Para: Hillbilly Fallacy
Elizabeth Catte: For the good of the poor and common people: What Hillbilly Elegy gets wrong about Appalachia’s working class
Mona Charen: What Hillbilly Elegy Reveals About Trump and America
One of the things brought up by Vance is about the ‘Hillbilly Migration’ from Kentucky to other states through Rt. 23. Here are some articles about that migration, one of which is about that migration to Chicago’s neighborhood of Uptown.
Chicago Mag: Chicago’s Hillbilly Problem During the Great Migration
NewCity: Hillbilly Heaven: Chicago’s Other Migration fro the South
Chicago Reader: Norma Lee Browning Vs. The Hillbillies
AppalachianHistory.net: Where the Hillbilly Highway Ends
Forbes: Rust-Belt Cities And Moving To Opportunity: It’s Time To Get Back On The ‘Hillbilly Highway’
L.A. Times: Urban Appalachians Find Pride in Hillbilly Heritage
I think something important to bring up when it comes to this book is the idea of Post Traumatic Stress and its effect on W.C. Minor. First, here are definitions of PTSD by the National Institute for Mental Health as well as the American Psychological Association.
Here are articles that address this idea of PTSD and the Civil War. While at the time they would not have recognized mental disorders in the way we do today, I think it’s worthwhile to explore this subject on how the perception of mental illness has changed or not changed from the 19th century until now.
New York Times – PTSD and the Civil War
Smithsonian Institute – Did Civil War Soldiers Have PTSD?
U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs – History of PTSD in Veterans: Civil War to DSM-V
History Welfare Network- Dying to Get Home: PTSD in the Civil War
True Story Book Club 