Amanda E. Hayes is Associate Professor of English at Kent State University Tuscarawas. This interview is based on her new book, The Madison Women: Gender, Higher Education, and Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Appalachia (West Virginia University Press, 2024). JF: What led […]
Appalachia
J.D. Vance “turns the shame of drinking Mountain Dew into a source of class and race resentment”
Mountain Dew is in the news these days, thanks to vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Watch: Over at The Atlantic, Ian Bogost gives us a fascinating history lesson on the drink that got me through a lot of late night […]
The Author’s Corner with Travis A. Rountree
Travis A. Rountree is Assistant Professor of English at Western Carolina University. This interview is based on his new book, Hillsville Remembered: Public Memory, Historical Silence, and Appalachia’s Most Notorious Shoot-Out (University Press of Kentucky, 2023). JF: What led you […]
Who is J.D. Vance? Apparently a lot of Ohio GOP voters haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy
In his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance interpreted Appalachia for a largely educated, non-populist reading public. He was able to do this because he left Appalachia for Yale Law School. He […]