Best-selling author opens spring Presidential Lecture Series

President Mitch Daniels and J.D. Vance on Monday in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse. (Purdue University photo/Charles Jischke) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — J.D. Vance, a New York Times best-selling author, opened Purdue’s Spring 2017 Presidential Lecture Series on Monday (Jan. 30).

Vance joined Purdue President Mitch Daniels for an hourlong conversation and audience Q&A session in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse.

The discussion centered on Vance’s best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis,” which The New York Times labeled “a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump.”

Vance’s book examines the decline of the middle class by using his own family and upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky, as an example.

He joined the Marines after graduating from high school, serving in Iraq. Vance later graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

Vance frequently contributes to The New York Times and National Review, and he appears on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.

Each guest of the Presidential Lecture Series will participate in classroom activities on the West Lafayette campus during the visit.

The series continues with Stan Druckenmiller, renowned philanthropist and hedge fund manager, on Feb. 1; Doug Brinkley, historian, professor and author of “The Reagan Diaries,” on March 1; and Bjorn Lomborg, author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” on April 11.

Writer: Brian Peloza, 765-496-9711, bpeloza@purdue.edu

Source: Abby Eddy, Purdue Convocations director of marketing, 765-494-9712, aeeddy@purdue.edu