Elizabeth Catte

At the end of Chapter Two, Elizabeth Catte begins connecting the threads of Eugenics, the Lost Cause, and replacement theory in the way each shares an interest in preserving a group’s place in the social hierarchy by any means available. Catte writes (referring to Confederate statues but really dealing with an entire colonial mindset):

By the consequence of their mortality these leaders deferred the pleasure of instruction to
their statue, unloving but no less rooted in what they hoped would be a lasting articulation of
their power. Attempts to make power endure can look like repressive laws, failed science
and combustible violence. But it analso feel like a gun pointed at you on an ordinary day.
And sometimes that’s exactly what it is. (110)

the passage and the book make clear that a discussion of eugenics, or any method of using ‘purity’ as a way to keep the hierarchy intact, can’t be separated from its roots in the history, geography and economics of a country. Even more, the way in which bigotry – when it becomes insidious in one form – merely evolves under the veneer of ‘science,’ ‘reform,’ or ‘progress’ to make something indefensible look like a service on the surface.

We compartmentalize these events and pretend a sense of innocence at our own peril. Important work and important connections drawn by Elizabeth Catte.
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Having roots in Eastern Kentucky there are many stereotypes about the region that need to be shattered. The idea of the region as a homogenous Scots/Irish region, ignoring the contributions of Black, Native American and Hispanic citizens - is especially toxic in that it separates the issues surrounding the region from the issues surrounding many other places - issues of exploitation, of an extraction culture run amok, of environmental racism. The separation of people and attempts to pit low income people against one another is by design - a design that has been aided by extraction industries, eugenics movements, white supremacists and libertarian think tanks. A culture that was incapable of supporting itself would not require both armed and political strongmen to shut down popular ideas that had the potential to improve lives and give people back control of their land. Many know this yet it's not always put effectively into words.

Catte articulates these issues and brings the receipts.… (más)

Overall, this book was a thorough disappointment.

The author explicitly states this book is a refutation and response to J.D. Vance's [b:Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|27161156|Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|J.D. Vance|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463569814l/27161156._SY75_.jpg|47200486]. This is stated in her forward as well as repeatedly through the book.

When I picked up this book, I was excited. A book duel! I expected to see either 1) a recitation of points made by Vance followed by Catte's counterpoints or 2) Catte's own direct unique experiences offering a counter point to Vance's work.

Instead I got door number 3: incoherent ranting. Catte refutes exactly nothing that Vance puts forward in his book. In fact, Vance's book is a deeply personal memoir - how exactly would you go about refuting someone's life? Instead, Catte digs up a number of people who are conservative (as Vance openly is conservative) and attacks the views of those people.

All of those people have one overriding thing in common: None of them are the author of the book she claims to be refuting. She offers us a classic logical fallacy of the Straw Man: "creating the illusion of refuting or defeating an opponent's proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition and the subsequent refutation of that false argument." (Per Wikipedia's definition of Straw Man.)

Her sources to refute the views of the people who didn't write the book in question? Huffington Post, New York Times, National Review, and similar publications. All valid publications, but since none purport to be any sort of experts on Appalachia they are utterly pointless in context of her stated goal of refuting [b:Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|27161156|Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|J.D. Vance|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463569814l/27161156._SY75_.jpg|47200486].

I could summarize her position as this. J.D. Vance is a conservative, Elizabeth Catte dislikes conservative views, so J.D. Vance needs to be silenced. I'm personally sick of this faux approach to intellectual discourse.

I will say the second half of the book is much better. She leaves off her straw man attacks and presents a well-thought out history of the exploitation of coal mining, the unintended consequences of the War on Poverty for Appalachia, the current soul-deadening of commercial prisons as a growth industry in the region. I suspect the second half of the book was in progress, and she added the first half as an emotional overreaction to J.D. Vance.

I wish I had read the second half of the book only. I hope the author considers re-issuing a book with just the second half. The first half is a full on temper tantrum, poorly written and poorly edited, and should never have made it to publication.

I gave the book 2 stars - the average of 4 stars for the second half and 0 stars for the first half.





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