Senator Vance’s 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” will no longer be printed by a German publisher after they reclassified the book as being “demagogic” and “exclusionary” less than two weeks after he was named President Trump’s running mate.
According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Mr. Vance’s book — which instantly became a New York Times bestseller and was later adapted into a movie starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close — is now viewed by the Munich-based publishing house Ullstein as being too extreme for readers now that the senator has moved to being an ardently nationalist, pro-Trump lawmaker and away from the anti-Trump, self-described “hillbilly.”
“At the time of publication, the book made a valuable contribution to understanding the disintegration of U.S. society,” a spokesman told the magazine. “Vance had offered an authentic portrayal of growing up in the impoverished white working class, and he also repeatedly distanced himself from Donald Trump at the time.”
“He is now officially acting on his side and represents an aggressive, demagogic, exclusionary policy,” the spokesman added.
The book was widely praised from the time it was published until Mr. Vance launched his political career in 2021 in the Ohio Senate race, casting himself as a Trump acolyte and an intellectual in the nationalist movement. Even Germany’s Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said in a 2023 interview that the book had moved him to tears when he read it. Mr. Scholz described it to the German magazine Süddeutsche Zeitung as “a very touching personal story of how a young man with poor starting conditions makes his way.”
Since Mr. Vance’s political career took off and he made a shift to pro-Trump from anti-Trump, some former supporters have revisited the book and now see it as a tome of grievance and racist dog whistles.
The chairman of the Appalachian Studies department at Berea College, Silas House, told Politico in 2022 that “Hillbilly Elegy” was a “dangerous” memoir that was more a manifesto for a white nationalist agenda than it was a story about the senator’s family life.
“I don’t negate the family story, and I think that if it had just been a memoir, it would be a powerful piece of writing and it would be his own proof. But the problem is it is woven through with dog whistles about class and race, gender,” Mr. House said at the time. “If your ears are attuned to those dog whistles, you know exactly what he’s saying. If you’re not, then it can read like a heartwarming rags-to-riches story.”
