When Steve Case, the billionaire co-founder of AOL, first met J. D. Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” the best-selling book about the industrial decline of the Midwest, Mr. Case told him, “I really love the book but there is a part of it I don’t love.”
Mr. Vance listened patiently.
“It helped frame the problem but it didn’t really offer up a solution,” Mr. Case told him.
“Well, it is interesting you say that,” Mr. Vance replied, “because that’s really what my next chapter is going to be.”
Image: The AOL co-founder Steve Case, front, and the author J.D. Vance quietly recruited some of the country’s wealthiest people to invest in their Rise of the Rest fund, which will seed investments in underserved cities and encourage their contributors to partner with benefiting businesses. Credit Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
