Government

JD Vance’s ‘Hilbilly Elegy’ Deemed Too Woke By The Department of Defense

Not even the Hillbillies are safe from the DoD.

By Chris Williams on February 20, 2025
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

There’s been some friendly fire in the new Administration’s rush to scrub anything that doesn’t glorify wealthy white males from publicly funded classroom curricula. An article on Pen.org reported on the Department of Defense recently compiling a list of books that are too “woke” for military families. There are some expected names — can’t have the children realize that our American life has a lot of parallels with Brave New World if they aren’t allowed to read it. But there are a couple of titles that are head-tilters. One book titled “Freckleface Strawberry” (affiliate link), a self-worth story tailored to ginger children, was deemed offending. As was another book, JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” (affiliate link).

I’ve no clue why this book was banned. Unless being poor, white, and Appalachian is the new Black (it isn’t), my assumption would be that it got nicked from the permitted-to-read list because it used the words “family,” “crisis,” and “elegy” in the title. Seems a little heavy handed and obvious to posit that a book banning would have anti-intellectual undertones, but I’m guessing that the word “elegy” alone is enough of a two-dollar word to get our censoring overlords to squint at a title. Vance’s book isn’t the only book lawyers with children may recognize on the nix list: “No Truth Without Ruth” by Kathleen Krull (affiliate link) also got tripped up in the censorship. I’m usually not quiet about how cringey and out of cultural touch it was to moniker the late jurist after a rapper who — despite his way with words — had no chance in hell of ever clerking for her, but having a children’s picture book about your life classified as too much for even military brats is pretty Notorious.

For now, it seems like the only things penned by JD Vance military families will be able to read is him regurgitating Fox talking points about how the Judiciary should eat crow whenever the Executive does something unconstitutional. God help us all.

Julianne Moore’s ‘Freckleface Strawberry’ And JD Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Among Cooks Caught In Defense Department Review [Pen.org]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.