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Big White Ghetto: Dead Broke, Stone-Cold Stupid, and High on Rage in the Dank Woolly Wilds of the "Real America"
"You can't truly understand the country you're living in without reading Williamson." —Rich Lowry, National Review
"His observations on American culture, history, and politics capture the moment we're in—and where we are going." —Dana Perino, Fox News
An Appalachian economy that uses cases of Pepsi as money. Life in a homeless camp in Austin. A young woman whose résumé reads, “Topless Chick, Uncredited.”
Remorselessly unsentimental, Kevin D. Williamson is a chronicler of American underclass dysfunction unlike any other. From the hollows of Eastern Kentucky to the porn business in Las Vegas, from the casinos of Atlantic City to the heroin rehabs of New Orleans, he depicts an often brutal reality that does not fit nicely into any political narrative or comfort any partisan.
Coming from the world he writes about, Williamson understands it in a way that most commentators on American politics and culture simply can’t. In these sometimes savage and often hilarious essays, he takes readers on a wild tour of the wreckage of the American republic—the “white minstrel show” of right-wing grievance politics, progressive politicians addicted to gambling revenue, the culture of passive victimhood, and the reality of permanent poverty.
Unsparing yet never unsympathetic, Big White Ghetto provides essential insight into an enormous but forgotten segment of American society.
"His observations on American culture, history, and politics capture the moment we're in—and where we are going." —Dana Perino, Fox News
An Appalachian economy that uses cases of Pepsi as money. Life in a homeless camp in Austin. A young woman whose résumé reads, “Topless Chick, Uncredited.”
Remorselessly unsentimental, Kevin D. Williamson is a chronicler of American underclass dysfunction unlike any other. From the hollows of Eastern Kentucky to the porn business in Las Vegas, from the casinos of Atlantic City to the heroin rehabs of New Orleans, he depicts an often brutal reality that does not fit nicely into any political narrative or comfort any partisan.
Coming from the world he writes about, Williamson understands it in a way that most commentators on American politics and culture simply can’t. In these sometimes savage and often hilarious essays, he takes readers on a wild tour of the wreckage of the American republic—the “white minstrel show” of right-wing grievance politics, progressive politicians addicted to gambling revenue, the culture of passive victimhood, and the reality of permanent poverty.
Unsparing yet never unsympathetic, Big White Ghetto provides essential insight into an enormous but forgotten segment of American society.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published November 17, 2020
362 people are currently reading
1464 people want to read
About the author
Kevin D. Williamson
9 books113 followersKevin D. Williamson is National Review's roving correspondent. He is the author of The End Is Near and It's Going To Be Awesome: How Going Broke Will Leave America Richer, Happier, and More Secure, The Dependency Agenda, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, and contributed chapters to The New Leviathan: The State Vs. the Individual in the 21st Century and Future Tense: Lessons of Culture in an Age of Upheaval. When he is not sounding the alarm about fiscal armageddon, he co-hosts the Mad Dogs & Englishmen podcast with fellow National Review writer Charles C. W. Cooke.
Williamson began his journalism career at the Bombay-based Indian Express Newspaper Group and spent 15 years in the newspaper business in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. He served as editor-in-chief of three newspapers and was the founding editor of Philadelphia's Bulletin. He is a regulator commentator on Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR. His work has appeared in The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Commentary, Academic Questions, and The New Criterion, where he served as theater critic. He is a native of Lubbock, Texas.
Williamson began his journalism career at the Bombay-based Indian Express Newspaper Group and spent 15 years in the newspaper business in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. He served as editor-in-chief of three newspapers and was the founding editor of Philadelphia's Bulletin. He is a regulator commentator on Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR. His work has appeared in The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Commentary, Academic Questions, and The New Criterion, where he served as theater critic. He is a native of Lubbock, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
December 28, 2025
this was a bracingly unsentimental collection to read over the holiday season. these essays were written during Kevin Williamson's decade at the National Review and usually portray certain issues taking place in specific cities. the author is one of my favorite sociopolitical writers: his tongue is sharp and his wit cutting, his insights have depth, his wordsmithery is almost ostentatiously literate, full of flair and idiosyncratic turns of phrase. he's a conservative-libertarian who inhabits his political perspective with such authenticity, intelligence, and authority that I've come to fully understand and often sympathize with his viewpoint. not that he is yearning for anyone's sympathy! he's too full of biting misanthropy to ever play to his audience.
he often aims his anger at politicians, of course. in general - they are not one of his favorite breeds - and also very specifically: Trump gets his pointy stick in one chapter; Bernie in another. Trump and the MAGA movement reappear regularly, as Trump voters have earned his everlasting disgust. and as a libertarian, it should come as no surprise that bureaucracy, regulation, and red tape also all receive scathing reviews from Williamson.
but politicians and bureaucrats are far from the only subjects of his ire. beyond them, his talent for disdainful appraisal finds a regular target in poor white people living in dead-end towns from Appalachia to Texas, addicted to drugs and welfare benefits, blaming the government and anyone but themselves for their woes and various downward trajectories. Williamson's contempt for resentful sloth as a lifestyle choice places him squarely within the bootstrap-conservative category that once appeared to include most pre-MAGA Republicans. (he clearly no longer identifies with that party, to say the least.) I'm not usually in favor of contemptuous points of view - too dehumanizing for my oh so sensitive sensibilities - but his attacks are understandable. and personal. he's from those places too. he portrays milieus that he is all too familiar with, as this is his own background, these are the figures from his own childhood. even his late mother comes under fire as a person typical of her setting: she was full of an unearned bitterness and an inability to examine how her own poor decision-making was central to the depressing state of her life, and of her children. Williamson is that neglected child who now sneers at those who neglected him while also rejecting self-pity. this is a relatable perspective to me, but he's so rarely empathetic that his views are often tough to read. his style is cold, dry, removed, with a deadpan sense of humor that is almost subliminal, and when it does forthrightly appear, is charred black. and yet the pains of his past still come through, carefully hidden between the lines.
much more enjoyable on a human level are his occasional pieces in which he doesn't detest his subjects. this is where his excellence as a writer really shines. I'm not usually drawn to reading about the culture and sociopolitical context of lives and towns built on farming, fracking, and oil drilling... but Williamson made these chapters completely compelling. a reader usually comes to his writing prepared for searing takedowns of hypocritical rubes and rich power-mongers alike. it's nice to see his critical eye sometimes trained on lives he does not hold in contempt.
the author may be a hard man to like at times, but he's an easy one to respect, even admire. now a father of four boys (three of them triplets!), his pieces these days are richer, sometimes more tender, often more astringent, than the essays in this book. age has not mellowed him, but it has made him wiser. I've read each and every one of his columns for about 3 years now; his insights have only deepened as he's become a father. much like the harsh mouthwash I favor, he's become indispensable to me.
here is a recent reflection by him on Christmas and children that I found to be quite moving: Many Sons to Glory
he often aims his anger at politicians, of course. in general - they are not one of his favorite breeds - and also very specifically: Trump gets his pointy stick in one chapter; Bernie in another. Trump and the MAGA movement reappear regularly, as Trump voters have earned his everlasting disgust. and as a libertarian, it should come as no surprise that bureaucracy, regulation, and red tape also all receive scathing reviews from Williamson.
but politicians and bureaucrats are far from the only subjects of his ire. beyond them, his talent for disdainful appraisal finds a regular target in poor white people living in dead-end towns from Appalachia to Texas, addicted to drugs and welfare benefits, blaming the government and anyone but themselves for their woes and various downward trajectories. Williamson's contempt for resentful sloth as a lifestyle choice places him squarely within the bootstrap-conservative category that once appeared to include most pre-MAGA Republicans. (he clearly no longer identifies with that party, to say the least.) I'm not usually in favor of contemptuous points of view - too dehumanizing for my oh so sensitive sensibilities - but his attacks are understandable. and personal. he's from those places too. he portrays milieus that he is all too familiar with, as this is his own background, these are the figures from his own childhood. even his late mother comes under fire as a person typical of her setting: she was full of an unearned bitterness and an inability to examine how her own poor decision-making was central to the depressing state of her life, and of her children. Williamson is that neglected child who now sneers at those who neglected him while also rejecting self-pity. this is a relatable perspective to me, but he's so rarely empathetic that his views are often tough to read. his style is cold, dry, removed, with a deadpan sense of humor that is almost subliminal, and when it does forthrightly appear, is charred black. and yet the pains of his past still come through, carefully hidden between the lines.
much more enjoyable on a human level are his occasional pieces in which he doesn't detest his subjects. this is where his excellence as a writer really shines. I'm not usually drawn to reading about the culture and sociopolitical context of lives and towns built on farming, fracking, and oil drilling... but Williamson made these chapters completely compelling. a reader usually comes to his writing prepared for searing takedowns of hypocritical rubes and rich power-mongers alike. it's nice to see his critical eye sometimes trained on lives he does not hold in contempt.
the author may be a hard man to like at times, but he's an easy one to respect, even admire. now a father of four boys (three of them triplets!), his pieces these days are richer, sometimes more tender, often more astringent, than the essays in this book. age has not mellowed him, but it has made him wiser. I've read each and every one of his columns for about 3 years now; his insights have only deepened as he's become a father. much like the harsh mouthwash I favor, he's become indispensable to me.
here is a recent reflection by him on Christmas and children that I found to be quite moving: Many Sons to Glory
November 19, 2020
Kevin Williamson and Matt Labash are the two conservative columnists I will drop what I'm doing to read (ironically, both included a piece about the porn convention in Vegas). Williamson is acerbic and unsentimental, a remorseless slayer of sacred cows and shibboleths; his humor is biting and occasionally cruel and he may not be atop anyone's list of desired dinner companions. But in the landscape of right-wing "intellectuals" and pundits, when so many are making arguments as a response to Trumpism (be they toadying before the altar of Trump or be they branding their species of resistance to it), Williamson is the rare breed who hasn't changed a bit. His criticism of Trump and Trumpism is part of a wider critique of the white underclass and its apologists, while his brand of conservatism is still anathema to the left (most notably the Atlantic). My conservatism may borrow a bit more from Michael Brendan Dougherty and Reihan Salam than he would find palatable, but among cultural and political commentators at work today few are as perceptive and indispensable as Kevin Williamson. His Big White Ghetto and White Minstrel Show are must-reads, even if you disagree with his descriptions, his prescriptions, or both, because he lacks the sentimentality, the condescension, or the dogma that inform so many of his contemporaries writing in that space. As much as I like Hillbilly Elegy, Big White Ghetto addresses the same problems in Appalachia without nostalgia and personalization of its challenges.
The most significant criticism I can levy is that I've read a number of these essays previously, and so I didn't pay for much that was new. But they were each worth a re-read, and I will probably return to them again.
The most significant criticism I can levy is that I've read a number of these essays previously, and so I didn't pay for much that was new. But they were each worth a re-read, and I will probably return to them again.
February 9, 2021
I was drawn in by his engaging writing I read elsewhere. He seemed more enlightened than your usual National Review writer and I figured, let’s see what he has to say.
But I just bailed out about 2/3 of the way through. Good writing can’t buoy the smug attitude and misguided content of his assumptions. Reading shouldn’t be this much like work and this unpleasant, I’m out of here.
But I just bailed out about 2/3 of the way through. Good writing can’t buoy the smug attitude and misguided content of his assumptions. Reading shouldn’t be this much like work and this unpleasant, I’m out of here.
January 29, 2021
Supported, researched opinions. To agree or disagree is the readers option, but several of the chapters
showed me an alternative viewpoint on some of the most serious problems in America. At the very least it has motivated me to find out more, and helped me understand the differing points of view.
showed me an alternative viewpoint on some of the most serious problems in America. At the very least it has motivated me to find out more, and helped me understand the differing points of view.
November 23, 2020
One of my favorite writers, Kevin Williamson, has collected a collection of his on-the-ground reporting, over a decade’s worth, and brought them together to the tell the story of the Big White Ghetto—the Appalachian towns stretching from northern Mississippi to southern New York. He starts in Booneville, KY, a place with “dubious title of poorest county in these United States” (40% poverty rate). Examining the opioid crisis, heroin addiction, drinking and other social problems, Williamson brings humor along with cogent analysis of what is happening. He tells the residents of Garbutt, NY, to “get off your asses and go find a job.” We want to blame outside forces for the trouble these locations are having, but nothing happened. These towns deserved to die, according to Williamson. Tough love, for sure, but what other ways can they help themselves? He also takes you to other places throughout the USA: Denver and the impact legalized marijuana has had on it, and surrounding states; Chicago’s gangs; Atlantic City, and how gambling does not bring economic development; the “Porn Oscars” in Las Vegas; a conversation with Richard Spencer, of alt-right infamy; Camp R.A.T.T. in Austin, Texas, a homeless site; A Bernie Sanders appearance in Iowa; a Flat-Earthers convention in Frisco, Texas; and the fracking revolution in Texas and Pennsylvania, where he dispels a bunch of fracking myths along the way, among other interesting subjects. A great look of some of the aspects of American life not widely covered, which Williamson has done in a funny, witty, and serious style. A great read.
December 16, 2020
I consider myself a liberal but Kevin Williamson is a conservative/libertarian writer whose sparking prose, biting wit and genuinely unique takes on the issues of the day often cause me to reassess my views on a host of topics. He does that again with Big White Ghetto, his enlightening, easy-to-read whirlwind tour of what some refer to as the "real America." (Williamson also puts this in quotation marks.) Too often, the usual tour guides of the White working class either approach their subjects as they would a primitive, inscrutable Amazonian tribe or as a Disneyfied encounter with the living embodiment of "what made America great." Neither of those approaches is particularly enlightening or helpful. Williamson, however, having had a hardscrabble childhood that included a period of homelessness, is a clear-eyed guide, neither overly cruel nor overly sentimental. As a libertarian who has little faith in government programs, Williamson doesn't offer a lot of "solutions" to the problem of White working class resentment other than that they ought to make more intelligent decisions that might improve their lot in life. That may sound harsh but, as we encounter a culture where drugs, unwanted children and a lack of motivation are all too common, it also rings true. It is also refreshing because this is not a partisan polemic. Williamson skewers right and left with near equal vigor and, in his telling, it does seem richly deserved.
May 26, 2021
National Review writer Kevin Williamson is not the first or only conservative commentator to take aim at what some people seem to like to call the "underbelly" of the conservative movement. Williamson will write about the people who have not just campaign bumper stickers on their cars but redesigned American flags flying from a truck bed that meshes the Stars and Stripes with a particular issue or candidate. These are the people that some folks think are the salt of the earth and that other folks see as the scum of the earth -- Williamson is clear that they, like most everyone else, are a little bit of both and in any event deserve better than being slogan fodder for whatever program solution is being discussed about them.
He's said a large part of this willingness to take a clear-eyed look at this group of people comes because it's his own history and upbringing as well. He had the same kind of chaotic home life and exposure to poverty of both income and choice that he writes about in Big White Ghetto, making him more than some sort of coastal anthropologist on an expedition amongst the natives to observe their quaint ways. Which means that he frequently sounds harsh in discussing this group, although from his perspective it's more realism than antipathy.
Ghetto collects several years worth of stories about different issues that orbit this group of largely unnoticed poor. Thanks to media portrayals and our own misunderstanding, many people aren't aware that the average poor person in America isn't necessarily a minority or a resident of an inner city. The same generational poverty deepened by entrenched and sclerotic governmental assistance programs that no longer assist people much at all exists in rural and small-town America just as much as the big cities. Areas of Appalachia form some of the major concentrations of this kind of poverty outside urban areas, and they give the title essay its name: They are the "Big White Ghetto."
Subsequent essays explore some of the cultural problems dealt with -- and created by -- this particular group of people. As often happens, the way a problem manifests in one economic group differs from the way it manifests in a different group. Lower-income folks get all of the problems that a bad cultural idea can generate, magnified and added to by the problems of poverty itself.
Most of these essays have been printed before, many in National Review, and they span several years. While all of them would have benefited from being more extensively revised to fit together as a whole, the earlier pieces especially seem disconnected from the later ones. Post-2016, these voices were definitely magnified through the lens of Donald Trump's populist appeals and any examination of them takes that into account -- but Ghetto doesn't review them in light of the new paradigm. Which also attenuates the thematic thread that's supposed to connect them all and leaves a big chunk of the book as just a collection of Williamson reprints.
Because most of what Williamson writes is entertaining and informative, that by itself isn't a bad thing. But it does mean that we didn't get the book-length examination of these cultural issues from him that could easily have been a five-star work...maybe combining J.D. Vance's personal knowledge of the subject with Saleena Zito's comprehensive reporting and adding Williamson's own refusal to sacralize any of the usual cows involved.
He's said a large part of this willingness to take a clear-eyed look at this group of people comes because it's his own history and upbringing as well. He had the same kind of chaotic home life and exposure to poverty of both income and choice that he writes about in Big White Ghetto, making him more than some sort of coastal anthropologist on an expedition amongst the natives to observe their quaint ways. Which means that he frequently sounds harsh in discussing this group, although from his perspective it's more realism than antipathy.
Ghetto collects several years worth of stories about different issues that orbit this group of largely unnoticed poor. Thanks to media portrayals and our own misunderstanding, many people aren't aware that the average poor person in America isn't necessarily a minority or a resident of an inner city. The same generational poverty deepened by entrenched and sclerotic governmental assistance programs that no longer assist people much at all exists in rural and small-town America just as much as the big cities. Areas of Appalachia form some of the major concentrations of this kind of poverty outside urban areas, and they give the title essay its name: They are the "Big White Ghetto."
Subsequent essays explore some of the cultural problems dealt with -- and created by -- this particular group of people. As often happens, the way a problem manifests in one economic group differs from the way it manifests in a different group. Lower-income folks get all of the problems that a bad cultural idea can generate, magnified and added to by the problems of poverty itself.
Most of these essays have been printed before, many in National Review, and they span several years. While all of them would have benefited from being more extensively revised to fit together as a whole, the earlier pieces especially seem disconnected from the later ones. Post-2016, these voices were definitely magnified through the lens of Donald Trump's populist appeals and any examination of them takes that into account -- but Ghetto doesn't review them in light of the new paradigm. Which also attenuates the thematic thread that's supposed to connect them all and leaves a big chunk of the book as just a collection of Williamson reprints.
Because most of what Williamson writes is entertaining and informative, that by itself isn't a bad thing. But it does mean that we didn't get the book-length examination of these cultural issues from him that could easily have been a five-star work...maybe combining J.D. Vance's personal knowledge of the subject with Saleena Zito's comprehensive reporting and adding Williamson's own refusal to sacralize any of the usual cows involved.
February 20, 2021
Overly quipy in a mean and unfun way.
November 10, 2022
The author intended the title Big White Ghetto (etc.) to be eye-catching and amusing, rather like those humorous travels-in-dystopia books that Joe Queenan and P. J. O’Rourke and Bill Bryson were cranking out some years ago. But there’s little humor here, and less dystopia. Williamson does his familiar rounds of down-at-the-heels Appalachia and points west and south, but most of the book is padded out with solemn, in-depth studies of soybean farming, natural-gas fracking, oil refineries, Flat Earth societies, gambling casinos, cannabis in Colorado, murders in Chicago, and Antifa rioters in Portland. As well as takedowns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, two of the author’s bêtes noires.
Like J. D. Vance, Williamson worked hard in 2016 to push the disinformation that Donald Trump’s supporters were mainly poor white trash in hollowed-out counties of Appalachia. Of course, Trump swept most counties in 2016 (and 2020), as well as most white demographic groups. He carried Pigeon Forge and he also carried New Canaan. But Williamson nevertheless still pushes that “low-class” innuendo. Apropos of nothing, he suddenly announces that the very poor Owsley County, Kentucky went 83.8 percent for Trump. What he leaves out is the actual headcount: a grand total of 1,474 Trump voters in the second-smallest county in the state.
Donald Trump pops up in the strangest places, including a truly enjoyable essay called “Death of a Fucking Salesman.” That was what the original cast of the stage play “Glengarry Glen Ross” called it in 1983, so famously cluttered was it with profanity. But most people know it through the 1992 movie with Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin. The Baldwin character, who has exactly one scene, but that one scene made him an icon among a certain set of young men. A few years ago Williamson went to a revival of the play. He saw young “finance bros” in the queue, quoting Baldwin’s lines at each other: “Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. Got that, you fucking faggots?”
But here’s the funny thing . . . the Baldwin character wasn’t actually in the stage play! No, David Mamet wrote that scene and character specially for the film, to add star power (Alec Baldwin being very hot just then) and raise production money. So the finance bros watching the play went home disappointed. They didn’t get to hear the magic lines.
Williamson mulls it over, this cult of alpha-male wannabes who idolize the toughest, meanest guy on the leaderboard. Then suddenly he remembers Donald Trump . . . and his thinking completely short-circuits. “For all his gold-plated toilets, he is at heart that middling junior salesman watching Glengarry Glen Ross and thinking to himself: ‘That’s the man I want to be.’”
There's a distinct whiff of envy here. The finance bros get fat paychecks and 401(k)s just for showing up. They never had to struggle like Kevin, churning out good-enough hackwork filler for National Review and Playboy. (Amazingly, Playboy is still around, though it doesn't pay the big bucks it used to, though perhaps a trifle more than NR.) The bros are spoiled. Like Trump. Kevin hates 'em.
Like J. D. Vance, Williamson worked hard in 2016 to push the disinformation that Donald Trump’s supporters were mainly poor white trash in hollowed-out counties of Appalachia. Of course, Trump swept most counties in 2016 (and 2020), as well as most white demographic groups. He carried Pigeon Forge and he also carried New Canaan. But Williamson nevertheless still pushes that “low-class” innuendo. Apropos of nothing, he suddenly announces that the very poor Owsley County, Kentucky went 83.8 percent for Trump. What he leaves out is the actual headcount: a grand total of 1,474 Trump voters in the second-smallest county in the state.
Donald Trump pops up in the strangest places, including a truly enjoyable essay called “Death of a Fucking Salesman.” That was what the original cast of the stage play “Glengarry Glen Ross” called it in 1983, so famously cluttered was it with profanity. But most people know it through the 1992 movie with Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin. The Baldwin character, who has exactly one scene, but that one scene made him an icon among a certain set of young men. A few years ago Williamson went to a revival of the play. He saw young “finance bros” in the queue, quoting Baldwin’s lines at each other: “Get them to sign on the line which is dotted. Got that, you fucking faggots?”
But here’s the funny thing . . . the Baldwin character wasn’t actually in the stage play! No, David Mamet wrote that scene and character specially for the film, to add star power (Alec Baldwin being very hot just then) and raise production money. So the finance bros watching the play went home disappointed. They didn’t get to hear the magic lines.
Williamson mulls it over, this cult of alpha-male wannabes who idolize the toughest, meanest guy on the leaderboard. Then suddenly he remembers Donald Trump . . . and his thinking completely short-circuits. “For all his gold-plated toilets, he is at heart that middling junior salesman watching Glengarry Glen Ross and thinking to himself: ‘That’s the man I want to be.’”
There's a distinct whiff of envy here. The finance bros get fat paychecks and 401(k)s just for showing up. They never had to struggle like Kevin, churning out good-enough hackwork filler for National Review and Playboy. (Amazingly, Playboy is still around, though it doesn't pay the big bucks it used to, though perhaps a trifle more than NR.) The bros are spoiled. Like Trump. Kevin hates 'em.
November 19, 2021
Like many politically-motivated books, this book has deep roots in the author's emotional landscape. The book's intense distaste for the troubled inhabitants of rural America stems from the author's personal trauma and his sublimated emotions.
As a conservative, Kevin Williamson must blame the failure of rural Americans to prosper on a lack of character and self-control. His own childhood as the son of a dysfunctional single mother is gradually revealed, and quickly is unveiled as the apparent cause of his ideological fervor. He was failed by his mother, but he overcame it through force of will and ultimately became a widely published author and writer for the National Review. He ferociously criticizes anyone who grew up in equally bad circumstances but wasn't as talented or perspicacious as himself. Then, he makes a few nominally Christian statements that fail to cohere with the rest of his message, ensuring the readers that, despite his generally despising tone, he does purport to Christianity.
Williamson assumes that the average person has much more ability to transcend their surroundings than is probably realistic. You can't reasonably expect someone born into a decaying and dysfunctional community to be able to rise above it, especially if they are of below average intelligence. We generally do what our parents and peers do, and if that's disastrous, we'll do it nonetheless. The only answer is compassion.
As a conservative, Kevin Williamson must blame the failure of rural Americans to prosper on a lack of character and self-control. His own childhood as the son of a dysfunctional single mother is gradually revealed, and quickly is unveiled as the apparent cause of his ideological fervor. He was failed by his mother, but he overcame it through force of will and ultimately became a widely published author and writer for the National Review. He ferociously criticizes anyone who grew up in equally bad circumstances but wasn't as talented or perspicacious as himself. Then, he makes a few nominally Christian statements that fail to cohere with the rest of his message, ensuring the readers that, despite his generally despising tone, he does purport to Christianity.
Williamson assumes that the average person has much more ability to transcend their surroundings than is probably realistic. You can't reasonably expect someone born into a decaying and dysfunctional community to be able to rise above it, especially if they are of below average intelligence. We generally do what our parents and peers do, and if that's disastrous, we'll do it nonetheless. The only answer is compassion.
February 14, 2021
I didn’t realize this was just a collection of articles. I expected he would weave a tale. He didn’t. Makes some great points but, I found some of his analysis skewed. That said, thought provoking and mostly well-written.
January 13, 2021
Each essay is thought-provoking and insightful. Less coherent overall than the cover suggests, but absolutely worth reading, if only for the writing itself.
July 11, 2021
Could only get about a quarter of the way through. Pseudo-intellectual myopic ranting without any ability to understand how things came to their present state.
July 19, 2025
Did NOT know what the National Review was before reading this
October 3, 2021
In Kevin Williamson's world, nothing-and I mean nothing-is a greater sin than hypocrisy, and he sees it everywhere. Rich and poor, black and white, liberals and conservatives, all are guilty in one way or another of actions betraying espoused values. He is an extremely cynical man. It is the main reason I remain at once attracted to and repelled by his works-we seem to see the world through that same lens, even if I disagree with him on many other issues (reproductive choice and economic policy, mostly). He can be extremely reductive in his dismissal of suffering while at the same time pretty accurate in the analysis of the cause and effect that brought it on. He seems to see the disintegration of conservatism as a principle as primarily (although not totally) a casualty of Trumpism when really it's hard, sneering edges, full embrace of racist crackpots, and worship of inherited and ill gotten wealth started decades before that (the moral failure of the anti-Trump movement is it's inability to hold itself accountable on that score). Still, he is intelligent, not a right wing hack like Hewitt or Lowry or York, and worth a liberal's time to check out.
January 3, 2021
Thoughts I Couldn't Neatly Organize, Neatly Organized
I have had the pleasure of living in several of the areas KDW describes, and I've made similar observations. Trying to reference them in polite political discussion, however, leaves me tripping over myself. I sincerely thank KDW for putting out this book. Hopping between parts of our country, he makes criticisms of politicians left and right, neatly placing blame somewhere between them and a menu of bad choices people used to be better at avoiding. I'll probably pick this up a couple more times - once a month from now, again maybe a month after that - and try not to read it all in one sitting. Yes, the straightforward prose and zingers make it hard to put down.
I have had the pleasure of living in several of the areas KDW describes, and I've made similar observations. Trying to reference them in polite political discussion, however, leaves me tripping over myself. I sincerely thank KDW for putting out this book. Hopping between parts of our country, he makes criticisms of politicians left and right, neatly placing blame somewhere between them and a menu of bad choices people used to be better at avoiding. I'll probably pick this up a couple more times - once a month from now, again maybe a month after that - and try not to read it all in one sitting. Yes, the straightforward prose and zingers make it hard to put down.
June 10, 2021
I am not in the demographic that would normally gravitate to this author but a friend gave me this and I decided to read it with an open mind. Although I agree with some of the author’s viewpoints and the writing was well crafted I found the author’s tone to be sanctimonious. He used 50 cent words when 5 cent words would have done the job and he is equally acrimonious to everyone. Indeed he reminds me of a cranky geezer who is nostalgic for a world that was only kind to cisgender white males of which of course he is one.
February 12, 2021
The title is misleading. This book is a collection of essays from cultural scenes across America. They are journalistic in nature: The author is observing, thinking, and passing through. The book tends toward sad scenes - drug addiction, a city going bankrupt, a homeless camp. Even the Flat Earth convention is pathetic in its own way. Honest, unsentimental, sharply observed and written.
May 25, 2025
Odd collection of essays that might have been more aptly titled, "It's Your Fault America!"
Appreciate the candor regarding the author's personal experience, but through twenty-plus installments it becomes clear how his thumb is being placed on the scale of his judgement. Shouldn't have been a surprise given how much of conservative thought seems to be preoccupied with score-settling rather than effective governance and, in this respect, Williamson's writing is a helpful time capsule reflecting the desire to bestow definitive calls on our fellow Americans whether they are worthy or not -- commodity farmers, worthy, unless they decide to take subsidies; specialty produce growers, unworthy, they should have closed down and moved on as soon as the FDA and USDA opened our borders to supply chains with minimal environmental and labor standards.
Easy read for the most part, but Williamson's frolic and detour to take shots at Senator Sanders and those that support him eventually detracts from what might actually be insightful from his travels and observations. Williamson's attacks on Senator Sanders are long, convoluted journeys. His essay on flat-earthers tries to thread this line from one object of derision to another: "Everybody is after that feeling: the flat-Earthers, the QAnon dopes who have got themselves so torqued up that the feebs are worried about them as a terrorism threat, the Bernie Sanders partisans whispering darkly about the 'rigged' economy and the shadowy billionaires acting behind the scenes who control the media, the corporations, the government . . ." Portraiture of the "Sanders partisans" complete. Except, maybe that's not quite right, because in describing Austin, the reader is treated to: "the people who are fighting and winning the class war in these United States have Bernie Sanders campaign signs in front of their tastefully modern $1.5 million Dwell-worthy East Austin homes. Rich white progressive America is America without mercy." Conspiracy nuts and upper white middle class virtue signalers! Sign me up! But that's not it, entirely, because Williamson has a whole chapter on how Bernie's supporters are really the latest iteration of national socialists, blood-and-soil yahoos whining about how globalization stole everything they knew. So conspiracy nuts, upper white middle class bleeding hearts, and the blue-collar working class? Hopefully someone in the DNC has read Big White Ghetto, because that Bernie guy seems like he commands a pretty big tent that would be a winning coalition.
Appreciate the candor regarding the author's personal experience, but through twenty-plus installments it becomes clear how his thumb is being placed on the scale of his judgement. Shouldn't have been a surprise given how much of conservative thought seems to be preoccupied with score-settling rather than effective governance and, in this respect, Williamson's writing is a helpful time capsule reflecting the desire to bestow definitive calls on our fellow Americans whether they are worthy or not -- commodity farmers, worthy, unless they decide to take subsidies; specialty produce growers, unworthy, they should have closed down and moved on as soon as the FDA and USDA opened our borders to supply chains with minimal environmental and labor standards.
Easy read for the most part, but Williamson's frolic and detour to take shots at Senator Sanders and those that support him eventually detracts from what might actually be insightful from his travels and observations. Williamson's attacks on Senator Sanders are long, convoluted journeys. His essay on flat-earthers tries to thread this line from one object of derision to another: "Everybody is after that feeling: the flat-Earthers, the QAnon dopes who have got themselves so torqued up that the feebs are worried about them as a terrorism threat, the Bernie Sanders partisans whispering darkly about the 'rigged' economy and the shadowy billionaires acting behind the scenes who control the media, the corporations, the government . . ." Portraiture of the "Sanders partisans" complete. Except, maybe that's not quite right, because in describing Austin, the reader is treated to: "the people who are fighting and winning the class war in these United States have Bernie Sanders campaign signs in front of their tastefully modern $1.5 million Dwell-worthy East Austin homes. Rich white progressive America is America without mercy." Conspiracy nuts and upper white middle class virtue signalers! Sign me up! But that's not it, entirely, because Williamson has a whole chapter on how Bernie's supporters are really the latest iteration of national socialists, blood-and-soil yahoos whining about how globalization stole everything they knew. So conspiracy nuts, upper white middle class bleeding hearts, and the blue-collar working class? Hopefully someone in the DNC has read Big White Ghetto, because that Bernie guy seems like he commands a pretty big tent that would be a winning coalition.
February 5, 2022
Kevin D. Williamson is a hugely talented and entertaining writer. This is a collection of 22 of his long-form essays originally written for National Review magazine between 2008 and 2020. All of them are very readable and interesting, but Williamson has a tendency to let his contempt get the better of him when he's describing what, to be fair, are often contemptible people. It's understandable but it subtly changes what he's doing from reporting to polemic. I prefer reporting, so the contempt is distracting. A couple of other quibbles: the book's title, Big White Ghetto [etc.] is a little misleading. Of the 22 pieces, two are about African-Americans, and at least eight others are about aspects of American culture that are non-race specific or multi-racial. This isn't a huge deal (and I suppose he named the book after the first essay in the collection), but the subtitle makes it sound like the entire book will be plumbing the depths of the white American underclass which isn't entirely what it's about. Also, the original publication year for each piece is listed at the end of the book along with the index, but this should have been included with the title of each chapter, along with an indication of the period being covered by Williamson's reporting. For example, there are a couple of stories about municipal bankruptcies and fiscal shenanigans that made the news back in the late 2000s. It would be helpful to the reader to know "as-of" dates for the information being presented. Perhaps the book would have benefited from more careful editing to improve the layout and dial down the contempt. Worthwhile, though, because the dude can freaking write.
January 13, 2022
I am not sure how to rate this and this is one of those times when I wish there was a half star option on this platform.
I went into this expecting one thing, and got sort of something else. There is A LOT of information packed into this barely 200 page book. There is also a lot of anger, bitterness, and comedy. It's not so much an attack on the "big white ghetto" of terrible white American stereotypes (which all have their basis in truth as stereotypes usually do), but an attack on the institutions, history, and cultures that make this sort of indigency and cultural rot possible.
Williamson makes his opinions very clear on these subjects, and sometimes you might be inclined to disagree with his overall opinion while still seeing the truth the bolsters his argument. You might be angry at him, or want to be dismissive or what he says, but it's those time when you should probably look into yourself as to why you're feeling that way.
I went into this expecting one thing, and got sort of something else. There is A LOT of information packed into this barely 200 page book. There is also a lot of anger, bitterness, and comedy. It's not so much an attack on the "big white ghetto" of terrible white American stereotypes (which all have their basis in truth as stereotypes usually do), but an attack on the institutions, history, and cultures that make this sort of indigency and cultural rot possible.
Williamson makes his opinions very clear on these subjects, and sometimes you might be inclined to disagree with his overall opinion while still seeing the truth the bolsters his argument. You might be angry at him, or want to be dismissive or what he says, but it's those time when you should probably look into yourself as to why you're feeling that way.
August 11, 2021
This didn't end up containing the information I was really expecting it to have. It was a somewhat scattered compilation of vignettes about life among certain, largely impoverished groups in the population. Some chapters were insightful - including those about drugs, welfare fraud, and the passivity with which people try to pass off the blame for their circumstances. Humor was biting and occasionally strayed into meanness.
In the end, I think the author wrote this book for people who he believes put this particular culture and group on a pedestal as the true Americans. I was looking for a book that would dive deeper into the issues of addiction and poverty among this group, and how these issues became so rampant over the past decades. It may be a reality check for some, but the overall shallowness of the book was somewhat of a disappointment for me.
In the end, I think the author wrote this book for people who he believes put this particular culture and group on a pedestal as the true Americans. I was looking for a book that would dive deeper into the issues of addiction and poverty among this group, and how these issues became so rampant over the past decades. It may be a reality check for some, but the overall shallowness of the book was somewhat of a disappointment for me.
April 14, 2021
A look into the genius of Kevin Williamson and how he perceives and conceptualizes complex issues denigrating American culture and society. This collection of essays is fascinating, though the chapter devoted to fracking could be considered more of a love letter. The image of a gigantic robot shuffling with feet angled at 45 degrees will always be in the back recess of my mind.
As a bubble-dwelling suburbanite who rarely engages with media depicting what Williamson describes, let alone any real-life association, I found myself troubled by my lack of awareness at the subject matter. I was grateful I read this book on the beautiful beaches of Maui because it helped offset the the depravity depicted. I only wished for Williamson’s solutions to the complex problems he purported.
As a bubble-dwelling suburbanite who rarely engages with media depicting what Williamson describes, let alone any real-life association, I found myself troubled by my lack of awareness at the subject matter. I was grateful I read this book on the beautiful beaches of Maui because it helped offset the the depravity depicted. I only wished for Williamson’s solutions to the complex problems he purported.
December 30, 2021
Williamson is a funny and acerbic observer and critic of many of America's vices: opiate addiction, dependence on the government dole, denial of basic science, left-wing extremists, right-wing extremists, weed smokers, Trump, porn makers, etc. This is a collection of short essays published over the last 15 years in the National Review, so some are more timely than others. Also, the title comes from one of the essays (about Appalachia), so it's not as if the whole book is truly about a white ghetto. If there is a theme that holds the book together (other than things and people that he doesn't like), it would be the prevalence of people who don't take responsibility for their own lives, instead blaming other people and things that make convenient scapegoats.
December 27, 2021
If you're looking for a sympathetic view of the poor, underprivileged, lower class members of American society, this probably isn't for you, but I'd recommend anybody interested in our present social conditions give this a read, whether you find you agree with Williamson or not.
Having grown-up in poor white America, Williamson has no particular romance with his past or, to be honest, those who dwell there. His observations are hard-headed and in some ways hard-hearted, but the idea that life should be handed to you, and that you should be lauded for having no desire to put in the effort (his perspective) to improve yourself does not in turn necessitate that we should either.
Having grown-up in poor white America, Williamson has no particular romance with his past or, to be honest, those who dwell there. His observations are hard-headed and in some ways hard-hearted, but the idea that life should be handed to you, and that you should be lauded for having no desire to put in the effort (his perspective) to improve yourself does not in turn necessitate that we should either.
December 24, 2021
Kevin is very, very funny. I think he could be a successful stand-up comedian. This book might enrage or enthrall, but will have you chuckling either way unless you are a humorless killjoy. There is certainly a risk of becoming more misanthropic and pessimistic. I don't think those risks are sufficient to warrant avoiding this book. There is a good deal of insight and observation of a potpourri of American life, all of it worth absorbing and considering and integrating into one's view of the USA as well as political and economic theories and policies.
July 31, 2022
Most of these essays (originally published in National Review) are only loosely connected, topic-wise, but I suppose that ultimately they are indeed all about white people. Like J.D. Vance, Williamson came from the dysfunctional white underclass, but unlike Vance, he remains solidly opposed to Trumpism, and his idea of compassion for these poor white Americans is less pandering and more accountability. This would make a good companion to Hillbilly Elegy, or, you know, you could just read it instead. (You'll be waiting a long time for the movie.)
July 29, 2023
A collection of essays from Kevin D. Williamson's writings at National Review. The essays chosen to paint a picture of an often unseen and unspoken part of America. From Appalachian poverty, big city decay, crazy white supremacists, government apathy and nonsense, antifa, and white-wing grievances are only a few of the areas Williamson writes about that do not fit into a nice neat cultural or political narrative.
A highly readable collection that is often hilarious, frustrating and sometimes sad,m no matter what side, if any, of the political spectrum you fall.
A highly readable collection that is often hilarious, frustrating and sometimes sad,m no matter what side, if any, of the political spectrum you fall.
February 7, 2025
I was hoping for something like a conservative version of Nick Kristof's Tightrope. Kevin Williamson had a similiar upbringing to J.D. Vance, but he is much more willing to be critical of the culture that raised him. I enjoyed the conservative critiques of the way that Republican party is enamored with a certain kind of dysfunctional culture and even welfare recipient. However, in whole, this book felt disjointed and fell short of what I was hoping, largely because it is a collection of essays rather than a well-organized book.
September 9, 2025
I have followed Kevin’s writing in the National Review for a few years and now The Dispatch. He has personally experienced the underside of American life as a kid and a young adult. In this collection of his essays from his career it seems like he survived the turbulence and is now able to provide a worthwhile retrospective interpretation of the disparate state of wealth and poverty along with the many ironies of our country from some one who has seen it from both sides.
The book was both entertaining and thought provoking.
The book was both entertaining and thought provoking.
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