Book
White trash : the 400-year untold history of class in America / Nancy Isenberg.
"A history of the class system in America from the colonial era to the present illuminates the crucial legacy of the underprivileged white demographic, citing the pivotal contributions of lower-class white workers in wartime, social policy, and the rise of the Republican Party,"--NoveList.
Record details
- ISBN: 0670785970
- ISBN: 9780670785971
- Physical Description: xvii, 460 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Publisher: New York, New York : Viking, [2016]
- Copyright: ©2016
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Fables we forget by -- To begin the world anew. Taking out the trash : waste people in the New World ; John Locke's Lubberland : the settlements of Carolina and Georgia ; Benjamin Franklin's American breed : the demographics of mediocrity ; Thomas Jefferson's rubbish : a curious topography of class ; Andrew Jackson's cracker country : the squatter as common man -- Degeneration of the American Breed. Pedigree and poor white trash : bad blood, half-breeds and clay-eaters ; Cowards, Poltroons, and mudsills : civil war as class warfare ; Thoroughbreds and scalawags : bloodlines and bastard stock in the age of eugenics ; Forgotten men and poor folk : downward mobility and the Great Depression ; The cult of the country boy : Elvis Presley, Andy Griffith, and LBJ's Great Society -- The white trash makeover. Redneck roots : Deliverance, Billy Beer, and Tammy Faye ; Outing Rednecks : slumming, Slick Willie, and Sarah Palin -- America's strange breed : the long legacy of white trash. |
| Immediate Source of Acquisition Note: | LSC 37.00 |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Social classes > United States > History. Poor whites > United States > Social conditions > History. Working class whites > United States > Social conditions > History. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud Branch | 305.50973 Ise | 31681020043345 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A history of the class system in America from colonial times to the present illuminates the crucial legacy of the underprivileged white demographic, challenging popular notions about equality while citing the pivotal contributions of lower-class white workers in wartime, social policy and the rise of the Republican party. By the author ofFallen Founder . - Baker & Taylor
A history of the class system in America from the colonial era to the present illuminates the crucial legacy of the underprivileged white demographic, citing the pivotal contributions of lower-class white workers in wartime, social policy, and the rise of the Republican Party. - Baker & Taylor
"A history of the class system in America from the colonial era to the present illuminates the crucial legacy of the underprivileged white demographic, citing the pivotal contributions of lower-class white workers in wartime, social policy, and the rise of the Republican Party,"--NoveList. - Penguin Putnam
The New York Times bestseller
A New York Times Notable and Criticsâ Top Book of 2016
Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
One of NPR's 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head On
NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2016âs Great Reads
San Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2016: 100 recommended books
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016
Globe & Mail 100 Best of 2016
âFormidable and truth-dealing . . . necessary.â âThe New York Times
âThis eye-opening investigation into our countryâs entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.â âO Magazine
In her groundbreaking bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg upends history as we know it by taking on our comforting myths about equality and uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassingâif occasionally entertainingâpoor white trash.
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âWhen you turn an election into a three-ring circus, thereâs always a chance that the dancing bear will win,â says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters who boosted Trump all the way to the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg.
The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as âwaste people,â âoffals,â ârubbish,â âlazy lubbers,â and âcrackers.â By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called âclay eatersâ and âsandhillers,â known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.
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Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about Americaâs supposedly class-free societyââwhere liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenicsâ-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJâs Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity.
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We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nationâs history. With Isenbergâs landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.
