Away from the spotlight of national politics, southwest Ohio continues to build its future – and may proudly reclaim its unjustly maligned Appalachian heritage in the process.
JD Vance attacks Democrats for hosting DNC in Chicago
Before a Harris-Walz rally in Wisconsin, JD Vance addressed a small crowd and reporters and attacked Democrats’ policies on public safety and crime.
Matthew Smith teaches American history at the Hamilton campus of Miami University of Ohio, where he also serves as regional director of public programs. This column first appeared on TheConversation.com.
Senator JD Vance has been named Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate. Commentators are turning to Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, to explain the political moment in America.
Eight years ago, Vance was a “Never-Trumper” and compared Trumpism to “cultural heroin” in an op-ed for The Atlantic.
Still, Vance’s book about his childhood in a troubled southwest Ohio town became a standard work in explaining the shift in American politics that Trump once brought about. One reviewer even compared Vance to an Appalachian Ta-Nehisi Coates, who revealed white, poor America to outsiders in the same way that Coates’ writings explained black America to white readers.
Today, with Vance on the Republican presidential ballot, national attention is once again turning to Middletown.
His hometown—north of Cincinnati—is in danger of becoming an abstract symbol of America’s Rust Belt. Ironically, it’s easy to lose sight of the city’s rich, distinctive heritage that gave Vance’s memoir its power.
As a British-born scholar of religion and immigration, I stumbled upon the study of Appalachia by chance.
Twenty years ago, I couldn’t even tell the difference between a banjo and a mandolin, and I could barely name a single bluegrass song. Dubious portrayals like the horror film “Everyone’s First to Die” have shaped my impression of Appalachian folk customs.
“A Night of Hope”: Transcript of JD Vance’s speech
Before I moved from Scotland to southwest Ohio, I couldn’t have imagined teaching Appalachian history, literature and geography in classrooms filled with the grandchildren of Eastern Kentucky coal miners. But my students at Miami University’s regional campuses have taught me as much as I have taught them—especially in Middletown, where I read “Hillbilly Elegy” in my Introduction to Appalachia class in 2018.
In Search of Middletucky
Strictly speaking, southwest Ohio is not part of the Appalachian Mountains.
The southeast of the state, which borders West Virginia, is considered the foothills of this mountain region. The southwest, on the other hand, which borders Kentucky, is clearly part of the Midwest but is strongly influenced by the Appalachian heritage.
As in Appalachia, diverse landscapes and mass migration have shaped this part of the state. In the mid-20th century, economic upheaval — most notably the mechanization of coal mining — forced Vance’s grandparents and many thousands of other Appalachians to seek new prospects in the Midwest, particularly Ohio.
With this migration came the sounds of mountain and gospel music, the fervent faith of Baptist and Pentecostal churches, and large family networks spanning generations.
Despite the traditional values that the Appalachian migrants represented, Vance grew up in a world where the pejorative term “hillbilly” was still steeped in prejudice and deindustrialization created a cycle of unemployment and despair – patterns familiar in many parts of the United States that feel left behind by economic change.
“Our houses are a mess,” he wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy.” “We scream and yell at each other as if we were spectators at a football game.”
But family ties, especially to Appalachia—in Vance’s case, his grandparents’ hometown of Jackson, Kentucky—were among the few lasting pillars of his stability.
“My grandparents left the real Kentucky and settled in Middletown in search of a better life,” Vance wrote, referring to Middletown’s sarcastic nickname, “and in a way they found it.” But they remained connected across the Ohio River, and Vance’s fondest childhood memories are summer visits to family in Kentucky.
Former Ohio legislator: JD Vance, a ‘cowardly shapeshifter’ who regurgitates MAGA language
In contrast, domestic violence and his mother’s heroin addiction overshadowed his life at home in Middletown. Like many children in that environment, Vance grew up with his grandparents, “Mamaw and Papaw” — whom he credited with the tough love that later set him on a path to success in the Marine Corps and at Yale Law School.
Mixed reactions
Many Appalachian readers objected to “Hillbilly Elegy,” claiming that Vance demonized their culture with grim descriptions of opioid abuse, broken families, and social decay.
Just as important, many people criticized his analysis of the region’s problems. Vance described a culture of “learned helplessness” in which the people around him were losing their autonomy due to welfare dependency and moral decay. The region’s problems “were not created by governments or corporations or anyone else,” he wrote. “We created them, and only we can solve them.”
Critics argued that this message diverted valuable attention from the importance of broader factors such as economic investment and education – even though Vance had written that the book was not about politics but about showing “what happens in real people’s lives when the economy goes down the drain.”
Many of my students objected to his book for precisely these reasons, but the wide range of their reactions revealed the complexity of the region.
Unfortunately, the portrayal of addiction, hardship and struggle resonated with many students. But not all identified with Vance’s Appalachian background, and among those who did, not all had experienced such struggles. The few Chinese students noted that China, too, has its Appalachians: mountain provinces shaped by coal mining.
Back home, students who proudly identified as Appalachian were divided over Vance’s blunt portrayal. Some found it condescending, others unflinching. Still others rejected the “Appalachian” label but identified with Vance’s heritage, pointing out that they, too, traveled “home” for family reunions in Kentucky.
The real Middletown
Like many Rust Belt towns, Vance’s hometown continues to struggle. Deindustrialization is taking its toll – particularly the demise of Middletown’s largest employer, Armco Steel.
The median household income is about $25,000 below the national average. The state report card estimates that only one in five Middletown high school graduates is ready for work, college or the military.
But the grim depictions in “Hillbilly Elegy” belie signs of progress. In the colorful downtown, the entrepreneurial renaissance clashes with Rust Belt stagnation. Heavy industry – immortalized in Kenyan songwriter Tom T. Hall’s 1972 “The Rolling Mills of Middletown” – is no longer as powerful an economic engine as it once was.
Nevertheless, there are signs of growth and change.
A 2022 study by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated that Ohio’s creative economy brought the state nearly $25 billion that year, and the fruits of that are visible in Middletown. Founded in 1891 by a local millionaire, the Sorg Opera House reopened in 2017 as the city’s most prestigious performing arts destination. And in nearby Wilmington, the Industrial Strength Bluegrass Festival, founded by Middletown native and bluegrass musician Joe Mullins, welcomes nationally acclaimed acts and thousands of spectators drawn to the region’s rich artistic heritage.
Away from the spotlight of national politics, southwest Ohio continues to build its future – and may proudly reclaim its unjustly maligned Appalachian heritage in the process.
Matthew Smith is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the United Kingdom. Smith teaches American history at the Hamilton campus of Miami University of Ohio, where he also serves as regional director of public programs.p. This column first appeared on TheConversation.com.
