Chapter 34 Further Reading: Appalachia and American Politics

Catte, Elizabeth. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia. Cleveland: Belt Publishing, 2018. The essential corrective to the narratives that dominated national coverage of Appalachian politics in the 2010s. Catte challenges J.D. Vance's cultural explanation, insists on structural analysis, and provides historical context that the national conversation largely lacked. Short, sharp, and accessible — an ideal starting point for students who want to understand the debate over what Appalachian politics means. Read alongside Hillbilly Elegy for maximum effect.

Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. New York: Harper, 2016. The book that shaped (and, critics argue, distorted) the national conversation about Appalachian poverty and politics. Whatever its analytical limitations, Hillbilly Elegy is an essential text for understanding how a national audience made sense of the 2016 election. Read critically, with awareness of the scholarly critiques discussed in this chapter.

Harkins, Anthony, and Meredith McCarroll, eds. Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2019. A diverse collection of responses to Vance's book from Appalachian scholars, writers, poets, and community members. The essays range from measured critique to passionate rebuttal, and together they constitute the most comprehensive challenge to the Hillbilly Elegy narrative. Essential for hearing Appalachian voices responding to a national conversation that was largely about them without them.

Eller, Ronald D. Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. The best single-volume history of modern Appalachia, essential for understanding the political context described in this chapter. Eller traces the economic, political, and cultural transformations of the region from World War II through the early twenty-first century, providing the structural context that Chapter 34 summarizes.

Gaventa, John. Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980. Gaventa's landmark study remains indispensable for understanding how political power operates in Appalachian communities — not just through overt domination but through agenda-setting and the shaping of consciousness. His analysis of why coalfield communities did not rebel against the conditions of their exploitation is directly relevant to understanding the political choices described in this chapter.

Frank, Thomas. What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004. Frank's influential analysis of how the Republican Party won white working-class voters by foregrounding cultural issues while pursuing economic policies that favored the wealthy. Though focused on Kansas rather than Appalachia, Frank's framework — the argument that cultural politics was used to divert attention from economic interests — is directly applicable to the Appalachian realignment. Read alongside the critiques that argue Frank underestimates the rationality and agency of working-class voters.

Isenberg, Nancy. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. New York: Viking, 2016. A sweeping history of how white poverty has been understood, stigmatized, and politically instrumentalized in American life. Isenberg's analysis of the "white trash" stereotype — and its relationship to the "hillbilly" stereotype — provides essential context for understanding how Appalachian voters have been perceived and categorized by the national political establishment.

Schaller, Thomas F. Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Published a decade before the 2016 election, Schaller's argument that the Democratic Party should abandon its efforts to win Southern and Appalachian white voters proved prescient — and, critics argue, contributed to the very abandonment that accelerated the realignment. Essential reading for understanding the strategic calculations that shaped both parties' approaches to Appalachian voters.

Cramer, Katherine J. The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Cramer's study of rural political consciousness in Wisconsin provides a valuable comparative framework for understanding the Appalachian realignment. Her concept of "rural consciousness" — a political identity organized around the perception that rural communities are ignored, disrespected, and deprived of their fair share of resources by urban elites — applies with full force to the Appalachian case.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York: The New Press, 2016. Hochschild's ethnography of Tea Party supporters in Louisiana explores the "deep story" — the emotional narrative — that underlies conservative political identity in communities experiencing economic decline and environmental degradation. Her methodology and findings are directly applicable to understanding Appalachian political behavior, and her concept of the "deep story" illuminates the emotional dynamics described in Chapter 34.

Mettler, Suzanne. The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Mettler's analysis of how government benefits are structured to be invisible — so that recipients do not recognize them as government programs — is essential for understanding the paradox of Appalachian voters who depend on federal programs while opposing "big government." Her research helps explain how the gap between political rhetoric and lived reality is sustained.

Shapiro, Henry D. Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978. The classic study of how Appalachia was constructed as a concept in the American imagination — how outsiders "discovered" the region, defined it as a problem, and proposed solutions that reflected outsider priorities. Shapiro's analysis of the invention of "Appalachia" provides essential historical context for understanding how the region continues to be perceived and used in national political discourse.

Documentary: What's the Matter with West Virginia? Directed by Chris Haines. 2020. A documentary exploration of West Virginia's political transformation, featuring interviews with voters, politicians, organizers, and scholars. The film examines the multiple factors driving the shift from Democratic to Republican and resists the temptation to reduce the explanation to any single cause. An accessible companion to Chapter 34's analysis.