Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz admitted he was “moved to tears” by the novel Hillbilly Elegy, written by a US politician and supporter of former US President Donald Trump.
In an interview with German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the leader of the centre-left German Social Democratic Party, a voracious reader, said the autobiographical novel was a “a very touching personal story of a young man who overcomes difficult circumstances”. He agreed that when he first read it it it had “moved him to tears”.
Scholz praised the author whom he said, “sharply analyses the injustices of American society and finds an escape route … through luck and his military career”.
Written by J D Vance, Hillbilly Elegy describes his own upbringing in the Ohio Rust Belt. It has been widely praised for its sympathetic yet brutally honest first-hand reflections on America’s white working class, specifically Vance’s community who originated in the Eastern US Appalachian region.
Vance became a junior US Senator earlier in 2023 and was already a member of the Republican Party before coming to prominence with Hillbilly Elegy, which was published in 2016.
His early-life experiences led him to different political conclusions than Scholz. Vance is an outspoken critic of so-called “woke culture”, a hardliner on immigration control and has staunchly backed anti-abortion positions and other traditionally Conservative values.
While he was initially a critic of Trump, he changed tack and is now an outspoken supporter of the former White House leader.
During his Senate run in 2022, Vance was identified with the ‘New Right’ faction of the Republican Party. Backed by controversial Silicon Valley magnate Peter Thiel, the New Right was characterised as ‘big government conservatives’, being friendlier to social welfare policies. The group was also seen as more willing to use the state to enforce traditional values, as opposed to the usual libertarian and laissez faire approach of the Republicans.
While Scholz suggested it was unfortunate that Vance had taken this political turn, he said he still felt it important to engage with the author’s work.
“If I only read what corresponds to my own opinion, I would miss out on the real adventure of reading,” he told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Scholz said that modern society and politics had a particular problem with “echo-chambers” and that everyone has to make an effort to break out of them.
“[This] is precisely the curse of social media: that we can settle comfortably in our bubbles, where we only get things that match what we have always believed … But what’s special is the new and unknown.”
He added that Vance’s book had helped him to understand the origins of “Trumpism” and that it showed why “progressives” need to focus more on creating better futures and living conditions for the working classes.
Scholz mentioned that he had also read Submission by Michel Houellebecq, a book that depicts a France being taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood and converted to Islam.
