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

The New York Times bestseller A New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for NonfictionOne of NPR' s 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head OnNPR' s Book Concierge Guide To 2016’ s Great ReadsSan Francisco Chronicle' s Best of 2016: 100 recommended booksA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016Globe & Mail 100 Best of 2016“Formidable and truth- dealing .

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necessary.”—The New York Times “This eye-opening investigation into our country’ s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.” —O MagazineIn 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.“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.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 “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.

Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumption