《乡下人的悲歌》内容简介

　　在《乡下人的悲歌》中，J.D.万斯真实讲述了社会、地区和阶层衰落会给一生下来就深陷其中的人带来什么样的影响。万斯的外祖父母从肯塔基州的阿巴拉契亚地区向北迁居到俄亥俄州，希望逃离那可怕的贫穷。他们通过努力跻身中产阶层，最后他们的外孙从耶鲁法学院毕业，这是传统意义上成功实现一代人向上流动的标志。

　　但是随着家族故事慢慢发展，我们发现万斯的外祖父母、阿姨、叔叔、姐姐，以及最重要的他的母亲，都在极力适应中产阶级生活的要求，却从没完全逃离过药物滥用、酗酒、贫穷和精神创伤。万斯便是在这样混乱又令人心碎的环境中成长，但也是这群“乡下人”的爱与忠诚，使他取得了今日的成就。

　　然而综合来看，像作者一样成功脱离贫困的案例，屈指可数。大多数的美国白人蓝领仍旧摆脱不了世袭的贫穷与困顿，仿佛是一条与生俱来的枷锁，牢牢套在他们的脖子上。究竟是什么样的原因，让他们无法在美国这个以自由为豪的国度中，找到合适的出路？

　　《乡下人的悲歌》是一部极其动人的回忆录，包含了栩栩如生的人物形象和诸多幽默元素，记述了向上流动到底是怎样的感觉，也对一大批人丧失美国梦的现象作了思考。这本书同时也是一部深刻的社会评论，通过作者的成长故事与经历，以“局内人”的角度，带领我们以更宏观的视野，深入探视美国蓝领阶层所面临的困境与危机。

　　作者简介

　　J.D．万斯有很多身份，生长在“铁锈地带”的穷小子，留守儿童，前海军陆战队队员，耶鲁大学法学院的毕业生，希拉里和克林顿的校友。

　　随着《乡下人的悲歌》这本书出版，并迅速横扫美国亚马逊、《纽约时报》等影响力畅销书榜，这本书也被美国数百家媒体用来解读“特朗普为什么会赢”，他又被赋予了很多新的标签，超级畅销书作家，共和党的未来之星，美国工人阶层的代言人，彼得•蒂尔的合伙人。

　　J.D.万斯，成长于美国“铁锈地带”的一个贫苦小镇，高中毕业后加入了海军陆战队并在伊拉克服役。后就读于俄亥俄州立大学和耶鲁大学法学院，目前在硅谷一家投资公司任管理职务。

Introduction to the content of the Countryman's Lament

In A Countryman's Lament, J.D. Vance tells the truth about the effects of social, regional, and class decline on those who are born into it. Vance's maternal grandparents moved north from Appalachia in Kentucky to Ohio, hoping to escape dire poverty. They worked their way into the middle class, and eventually their grandchildren graduated from Yale Law School, a traditional symbol of successful generational upward mobility.

But as the family story unfolds, we discover that Vance's maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, sister and, above all, his mother struggled to adjust to the demands of middle-class life without ever fully escaping substance abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. Vance grew up in this chaotic and heartbreaking environment, but it was the love and loyalty of this group of "country people" that made him where he is today.

However, on the whole, there are only a handful of cases like the author who have successfully lifted themselves out of poverty. Most white blue-collar Americans still cling to hereditary poverty and hardship as if they were born with a chain around their necks. What is it that makes them unable to find a suitable way out in the United States, a country that prides itself on freedom?

"A Countryman's Lament" is a deeply moving memoir, with vivid characters and plenty of humor, about what upward mobility really feels like and a meditation on the loss of the American Dream for a large number of people. This book is also a profound social commentary, through the author's growth story and experience, from the perspective of "insiders", to lead us to a more macro vision, in-depth visit to the plight and crisis faced by the blue collar class in the United States.

About the author

J.D. Vance is a lot of things, a Rust Belt kid, a left-behind kid, a former Marine, a Yale Law School graduate, a Hillary and Clinton alumnus.

With the publication of the book "The Country Man's Lament", and quickly swept the influential bestseller lists such as Amazon and the New York Times, the book was also used by hundreds of media in the United States to interpret "why Trump won", and he was given a lot of new labels, super best-selling author, the future star of the Republican Party, the spokesman of the American working class, Peter Thiel's partner.

J.D. Vance, who grew up in a poor town in America's Rust Belt, joined the Marines after high school and served in Iraq. He attended Ohio State University and Yale Law School, and currently holds a management position at a Silicon Valley investment firm.