What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

Like Elizabeth Catte, many of us have wanted to write a book that would dispel the terrible impressions that mainstream America has been getting from reading articles that view poor Appalachians - rather than rich people seeking tax-breaks - as to blame for President Trump. And we have wanted to counteract J.D. Vance’s claim in his best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy, that he is the only one who escaped an Appalachian culture of poverty to lead a successful life, not just that he sometimes feels that way. Now Elizabeth Catte has written a book titled, What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, and we can’t wait to see if she, too, is getting it wrong.  Most importantly, she emphasizes that Appalachia is not an “it,” but a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-class, heterogeneous amorphous region. Her book is divided into three crucial parts. The first part refutes the claims that Appalachia is “Trump Country.” The second part refutes J. D.  Vance’s claim that Appalachia’s “culture of p