{"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":"The New York Times bestseller\nA New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016\nLonglisted for the PEN\/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction\nOne of NPR's 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head On\nNPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2016’s Great Reads\nSan Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2016: 100 recommended books\nA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016\nGlobe \u0026amp; Mail 100 Best of 2016\n\n“Formidable and truth-dealing . . . necessary.” —The New York Times\n\n“This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.”—O Magazine\n\nIn 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 embarrassing—if occasionally entertaining—poor white trash.\n\n“When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win,” 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.\n\nThe wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as “waste people,” “offals,” “rubbish,” “lazy lubbers,” and “crackers.” By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters” and “sandhillers,” known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.\n\nSurveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where 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–-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’s 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.\n\nWe acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation’s history. With Isenberg’s landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0670785970\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: DBV.0670785970.A\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Acceptable\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Isenberg, Nancy\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: This copy has clearly been enjoyed—expect noticeable shelf wear and some minor creases to the cover. Binding is strong, and all pages are legible. May contain previous library markings or stamps.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dream Books Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41454974402618,"sku":"DBV.0670785970.A","price":7.62,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/6011\/0138\/files\/0670785970-0.jpg?v=1781030617","url":"https:\/\/shop.dreambooksco.com\/products\/white-trash-the-400-year-untold-history-of-class-in-america","provider":"Dream Books Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}