 to the social pathologies of the white working class. Rather than the decline of the industrial economy in the U.S., there is a lack of agency here in Middletown, a feeling that you have little control over your life, and a willingness to blame everyone but yourself, wrote Vance. In a review, the New York Times called the book a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump.