Melanie Kramer-Torok

“How did journalists and correspondents for the New York Times as well as scholars not catch these acts of generalizing and aggrandizing on behalf of elite readers?” she asks. “How did we trade in the breadth of diversity the region has to offer for one view? While reading Hillbilly Elegy I thought, here is how. This is how places and people become caricatures of themselves, ourselves.”
― Elizabeth Catte, What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia

“You might be asking, “Why does Hillbilly Elegy sound kind of like the Moynihan Report?” One reason is that white Appalachians became persona non grata after the War on Poverty failed.”
― Elizabeth Catte, What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia

“Outdated theories about a culture of poverty in Appalachia, honed in the 1960s, had become popular once more thanks to Hillbilly Elegy.”
― Elizabeth Catte, What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia

“Women endure because we aren’t given any other choice.”
― Amanda Lovelace, The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One