{"product_id":"white-trash-the-400-year-untold-history-of-class-in-america","title":"White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America","description":"\u003cdiv data-a-expander-name=\"book_description_expander\" data-a-expander-collapsed-height=\"280\" class=\"a-expander-collapsed-height a-row a-expander-container a-spacing-base a-expander-partial-collapse-container\" style=\"max-height: none; height: 280px;\"\u003e \u003cdiv data-expanded=\"false\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px;\"\u003e \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e New York Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e Bestseller, with a new preface from the author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‚ÄúThis estimable book rides into the summer doldrums like rural electrification. . . . It deals in the truths that matter.‚Äù‚ÄîDwight Garner, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‚ÄúThis eye-opening investigation into our country‚Äôs entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.‚Äù\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‚Äî\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‚Äú\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eWhite Trash\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e will change the way we think about our past and present.‚Äù\u003cbr\u003e ‚ÄîT. J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eCuster‚Äôs Trials \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eIn her groundbreaking  bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eco-author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Problem of Democracy,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e takes on our comforting myths about equality, uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing‚Äîif occasionally entertaining‚Äîpoor white trash.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‚ÄúWhen you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there‚Äôs always a chance that the dancing bear will win,‚Äù says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters that put Trump in the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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 ‚Äúwaste people,‚Äù ‚Äúoffals,‚Äù ‚Äúrubbish,‚Äù ‚Äúlazy lubbers,‚Äù and ‚Äúcrackers.‚Äù By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called ‚Äúclay eaters‚Äù and ‚Äúsandhillers,‚Äù known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America‚Äôs supposedly class-free society‚Äì‚Äìwhere 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 eugenics‚Äì-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 LBJ‚Äôs Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHere Comes Honey Boo Boo \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eDuck Dynasty. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMarginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation‚Äôs history. With Isenberg‚Äôs landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\" style=\"opacity: 1; display: block;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content-fade\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"javascript:void(0)\" role=\"button\" data-action=\"a-expander-toggle\" class=\"a-declarative\" data-a-expander-toggle='{\"allowLinkDefault\":true, \"expand_prompt\":\"Read more\", \"collapse_prompt\":\"Read less\"}'\u003e\u003ci class=\"a-icon a-icon-extender-expand\"\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-expander-prompt\"\u003eRead more\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50578934235421,"sku":"9780143129677","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0901\/5692\/5213\/files\/9780143129677.jpg?v=1762278432","url":"https:\/\/bookdelico.com\/products\/white-trash-the-400-year-untold-history-of-class-in-america","provider":"Book Delico ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}