Overview
The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement. 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. In White Trash, Nancy Isenberg upends assumptions about America's supposedly class-free society. 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. 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. We 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.
Full Product Details
Author: Nancy Isenberg ,
Kirsten Potter
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Imprint: Tantor Audio
ISBN: 9781799984450
ISBN 10: 1799984451
Publication Date: 21 June 2016
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Audio
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
This is breathtaking social history and dazzling cultural analysis at its best.-- Michael Eric Dyson, author of Holler if You Hear Me A gritty and sprawling assault on...American mythmaking. -- Washington Post An important call for Americans to treat class with the same care that they now treat race...Her work may well help that focus lead to progress. -- Time Formidable and truth-dealing. -- New York Times This eye-opening investigation into our country's entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant. -- O, The Oprah Magazine With her strong academic background and accessible voice, Isenberg takes pains to reveal classism's deep-seated roots. -- Entertainment Weekly
Author Information
Nancy Isenberg is the author of Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography and won the Oklahoma Book Award for best book in nonfiction. She is coauthor, with Andrew Burstein, of Madison and Jefferson. She is the T. Harry Williams Professor of American History at LSU, and writes regularly for salon.com. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Kirsten Potter has won several awards, including more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a three-time finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. Her work has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and by AudioFile magazine, among many others. She graduated with highest honors from Boston University and has performed on stage and in film and television, including roles on Medium, Bones, and Judging Amy.
