In political circles, everyone is recommending "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of A Family and Culture in Crisis" by J.D. Vance. They’re right. Soaring to second on the New York Times Nonfiction bestseller list, Vance has been asking the rounds on cable TV and news publications to talk about his book. In a heart wrenching, thought-provoking and deeply engaging manner, Vance chronicles his life as a young boy in Middletown, Ohio, descendants of hillbillies, as he calls his people affectionately, from Kentucky. Vance writes beautifully, admirably and also critically about his family and extended family and the troubles they face; problems, Vance says, are common among working class whites in Appalachia. Vance is also extremely proud of his heritage and home, struggling to shed his hillbilly ways ways which he hold dear to his heart, even as he attempts glad-handle future employers at a cocktail party. No matter your background, Hillbilly Elegy will change the way you look at Appalachia, family, poverty, life and politics. Here are six reasons I believe college students in particular should read Hillbilly Elegy,

1. Learning about “Hillbillies”

Vance writes about his experience growing up in Middletown, Ohio, and his many trips to Kentucky, where he calls home. Bouncing from house to house, his family struggled with poverty and drug use, changing father figures. Vance eventually goes to the military and then to obtain his college at Ohio State, and Yale Law school. In some ways, Vance is an outlier. He was raised by people who had not attended college who also experienced chronic hardship and financial troubles. Vance ended up with a position at a Silicon Valley global investment firm. In other ways, his military service, lack of a stable father figure in his life, is representative of many white working class men from rural America, many of whom do not attend college. This makes their perspectives, by definition, underrepresented on college campuses, making it all the more important we understand where Vance comes from.

2. Understanding a Misunderstood Demographic

Working class whites, particular those in the Rust Belt, South and Appalachia are talked about quite frequently, but not always in a responsible sensitive manner. On the one hand is sneering elitist liberals who mock those who “cling to their guns and religion," as President Obama once ham-fistedly put it. These democrats feel for the economic hardships experienced by working class whites but feel as though they are voting for the wrong party, “against their own interests.” This paternalistic, confused and, frankly, disdainful view of working class whites does a disservice to public discourse. On the other side of the coin is people who paint silly, nostalgic pictures of the white working class in America. These people have been forgotten by both parties, they say. Political elites have moved away from so many hardworking Americans, pushing environmental regulations that take away coal jobs, trade deals that cause manufacturing plants to shut down and high levels of low skill immigration that takes away their farming jobs so the narrative goes. Forget free trade deals and Co2 emission restrictions, they say, we need to save this demographic of old stock Americans. While this sentiment is understandable, I think the subtext in this view is that these are the Americans who who really matter, who work in certain jobs that need to be preserved, for old time sake. This story people tell is based on an outdated version of the American economy and sentimentality about a more fruitful past, real or imagined, which is not particularly conducive to helping anybody acclimate to the modern realities of today's economy. While there is truth to both narrative Vance does not use either of them. His friends and family are gun-carrying, God-fearing, culturally conservative people who no longer express much fondness for the Democratic party. But they also have many problems and vices, addiction, short lasting relationship, violence among other maladies, none of which Vance blames on The Man shutting down the steel factories or coal mines. Vance admires his people but is introspectively critical a rare perspective that fits neither the nostalgic nor the disdainful tropes.

3. Religious and Post-Religious White America

For many secular, urban liberals, swaths of white Americans in so called flyover states get pushed into one pile. These Americans are thought of patriotic, culturally conservative and religious. But these labels don't necessarily indicate that one is likely to attends church or experience organized religion in any meaningful way. Some of his family, like his grandmother who he affectionately calls Mamaw, believes in God, but thinks churches are full of snake rattling, holly-rolling hucksters who are best avoided. Others' extended family attend church frequently. Both of these approaches to religion pose their own problems. His example, one of religiously involved family members are unfortunately drawn into deeply conspiratorial, grievance based world views with little connections to Christ’s teachings. His grandmother and other non-churchgoers in his life do not have the supportive communities or language to discuss issues, such as addiction and redemption and that church goers have at their disposal while going through tough times. College students and young people, who are increasingly secular, would be wise to hear about the vices and virtues with both religious and post-religious America.

4. Escapes the Incomplete Narrative of White Privilege

Speaking in terms of race and the privileges afforded by Whiteness, and disadvantages people face that lack it, has been a useful way to acknowledge structural inequalities. Unfortunately left out of this race, rather than class-centric, language, are pockets of impoverished whites, who experience high rates of early deaths, depression, suicide and drug use. The Scot-Irish and Appalachian whites, the traditionally patriotic, honor culture adhering, long time residents of Appalachia , a group which Vance is a proud member, were to be counted in census as separate from the expansive, almost useless White/ Caucasian category, there is good reason to believe we would see levels of addiction, early death and depression far exceeding those of other White subgroups. Vance provides a needed, rarely seen insight into a culture and community for which white privilege has no use.

5. President Barack Obama

Ever since Obama came on to the political scene, something that has legitimately puzzled me (and I assume many other young liberals) is why many deeply dislike Obama in a way that is divorced from policy. While his explanation for the so many his fellow hillbillies and rednecks distrust Obama is a small portion of the book, it worth quoting at length as it provides a unique insight that explains why certain people could hate a man many of us admire.

“..none of my high school classmates attended an Ivy-league school. Barack Obama attended two of them and excelled at both. He is brilliant wealthy and speech like a constitutional law professor… Nothing about him bears any resemblance to the people I admired growing up. His accent-clean, perfect, neutral- is foreign; his credentials are so impressive that they're frightening; he made his life in Chicago, a dense Metropolis; and he conducts himself with a confidence that comes from knowing modern meritocracy was built for him.”

While conceding that some of the animosity towards Obama stems from simple racism, Vance explains the other, more complex, sympathetic reasons for why the people mistrust their President. The passage above, part of a slight longer riff on the subject, is a perspective I suspect most college students, particularly those that lean left or are from suburban or urban areas, are unfamiliar.

6. Donald Trump

Donald Trump's campaign, if it has done anything positive, has shed a light on parts of the country where people are super angry with the state of our politics. Because of the timing of Vance’s book release, Vance has been asked about Trump’s appeal to the White working class, in just about every interview in which Vance has participated. Though Trump is not mentioned in Hillbilly Elegy, it's hard to read the book without thinking of him and his appeal. But Trump's coalition, even in the primary, was and is far more expansive than Appalachia and the Rust Belt. Along with West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, in the primaries, Trump won by large margins in places like, Nassau County, Staten Island, Arizona and Delaware, places where people’s experiences bear little resemblance to Vance’s childhood homes of Kentucky or rural Ohio. This makes Hillbilly Elegy an incomplete explanation of why Trump was so appealing to 30-50 percent of the GOP primary electorate depending on the state. Trump's rise is perhaps the least important reason to read Hillbilly Elegy. Still, the book provides useful insight into a portion of Trump’s geographically and economically diverse coalition of (mostly) White people.

J.D. Vance's book is impressive and engaging. It is particularly useful for college students, many of whom, including myself, hear little from the types of people Vance grew up with. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy is balanced, engaging and compassionate; it also contains a lot of good faith introspective criticism of people loves and wants to help. I highly recommend reading it before your workload starts to pile up.