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Summer reading books: the ties that bind colleges

Colleges across the country are giving students common reading assignments. Some campuses go against the liberal trend. At least four schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have chosen a best seller written by a young conservative: J. D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which explores issues of social breakdown among working-class whites, such as drug use and child neglect.