Book #5 of 2017:

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

An eye-opening account of class distinctions in America that have often been downplayed or ignored in popular history. Nancy Isenberg traces the white lower class from the early days of Bacon’s Rebellion through the populism of Andrew Jackson to more modern-day phenomena like trailer parks and reality TV. She presents a meticulously-researched argument that classism has always been a part of America – and although she does not frame it in these exact terms, it’s a classism that is essentially racism, given how the poor are often conceived of as a ‘lesser breed’ and were in fact a regular target of the American eugenics movement.

Even as recent years have seen more of an embrace and celebration of lower-class identity and culture, the white poor in many ways remain locked out of popular narratives except to function as occasional scapegoats, clowns, or villains. Isenberg places them in the center of her history, and while the reader may sometimes wish that she spent more time addressing issues of race, there is no denying her main thesis that the long-abused white lower class has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in contemporary America.

White Trash is a devastating read, and an important one for anyone struggling to understand modern American culture and politics.

★★★★☆

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