White Trash

Really interesting book, showing the roots of the class system in the US. In light of this last election, and all the talk about the white, rural vote, this book can help shed a light on some of why they are and have been. We like to pretend there's no class structure here, but it's older than our country, and ignoring it just adds to the problems we have.

This book is required reading for anyone who has an interest in understanding the class, gender, and race-fuelled 2016 American presidential election or just in understanding poor white America.

Riveting and thorough, this book doesn't pull any punches and includes Jefferson's stance on nature versus nurture, opportunist populist presidential campaigns exploiting the poor working class, glorification of poor white America in the media through figures like Dolly Parton and Honey Boo Boo, and the list goes on. Incredible how political history repeats itself.

Comprehensive, but what, in the end, is the point? That we aren't a classless society? Pretty sure we knew that. On the other hand, maybe that's because I'm a Yankee living in the South . . . Seriously, though, the book feels repetitive, on the one hand, and shallow on the other. As a life-long middle-class person, the question I have is why don't the “white trash”–a term I never use–want to rise above their class? At one time, they couldn't. But now?

An eye opening history of white trash in America. It covers indentured servitude from our colonial beginnings, lack of rights for squatters during American expansion, African slavery vs. poor whites in the pre-Civil War South, eugenics, all the way to the present time where white trash plays a part in contemporary culture: TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as white trash presidents, etc. I was a little disappointed that the book focused mainly on the South, but I loved how it brought in race, self-presentation, and pop-culture. I thought the book did a good job of showing how class and power are tangled up in so many of the historical discussions about what's good for society or what should be done about social problems.

The quote I keep coming back to, because I think it sums up the gist of the book, is this one, from Lyndon Johnson (another white trash president): “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” It's worth reading the book for all the richness of detail and the many connections that flesh this idea out.

White Trash is a myth-slashing, American-Dream-crushing diatribe about the class divisions that exist now and have always existed in the US. It's a history of class divisions and bigotry against the poor in America. It's a startling picture of American white trash icons—Lyndon Johnson, Dolly Parton, Mayberry, even Elvis—and their role in American culture. It's a difficult read, especially the last chapter where the author lets the Powers-that-Be have it in the face for the scorn they've heaped on white trash, for their efforts to keep white trash in the gutter.

(Let me say that I am thrilled to be taking this title off my signature line on my e-mails. How many people have asked, “What are you reading?!”)

Short Review: We don't live in a classless society and we never have. That part of the book I think is helpful and important.

I am not sure that the history and method broader than that is really as accurate as it should be. It has a too broad view of eugenics. And it treatment of religious issues is not much better. That is not to say that there are not lots of problems with the history of eugenics and how Christianity in particular, since it has been the dominant religious force in the US has played into discrimination against lower classes.

I rate this as a 4 star book for importance, but 3 for actual execution.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/white-trash/

It's an impossible task really. 400 years of class in America concentrating on the white poor. Despite it's brick-like size it can only do so much and this focus is off putting with the noticeable avoidance of black slavery and native peoples. But Isenberg is up front, she's interested in examining crackers, rednecks, hillbillies and the titular white trash.

I'm a Canadian so I have no idea what gets taught in schools across the United States. I'm sure it's as defanged and sterilized as what we learn in Canadian History. So it's incredible to hear about America being seen as a potential dumping ground for the idle poor, the criminal, and orphaned of England. Or about President Andrew Jackson, redneck malcontent that did whatever he pleased with vocal supporters that favoured brawling over brainy discussion. Or the eugenics craze that swept the nation in the early 1900's on the backs of the idea that “class was congenital”.

I could have done without the last fifty years talking about the rise of white trash in the media landscape from the Beverly Hillbillies, to the Dukes of Hazard, Honey Boo-boo and Sarah Palin. It's too much ground to cover and offered no real insight to the pop culture landscape. And in this post-Trump world it would have been timely if she was able to extend her analysis to the past election.

This book really made me think about race and class. While I always knew that the wealthy used ways to repress the poor I never actually stopped to think about the history of class. Redirecting anger from wealth and privilege to race, false enemies and economic promises never kept. I especially appreciated the extensive bibliography in the back, I had to stop and fact check a few times, but the author was right on every account.
A learning experience that I enjoyed.