White Trash

The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

By: Nancy Isenberg

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

The New York Times bestseller
A New York Times Notable and Critics’ Top Book of 2016
Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction
One of NPR's 10 Best Books Of 2016 Faced Tough Topics Head On
NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2016’s Great Reads
San Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2016: 100 recommended books
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2016
Globe & Mail 100 Best of 2016

“Formidable and truth-dealing . . . necessary.” —The New York Times

“This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.” —O Magazine
In 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 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.

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.

Critic reviews

“Formidable and truth-dealing…necessary.” – The New York Times

“This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.” –O Magazine

“A gritty and sprawling assault on…American mythmaking.” —Washington Post

“An eloquent synthesis of the country’s history of class stratification.” –The Boston Globe

“A bracing reminder of the persistent contempt for the white underclass.” –The Atlantic

“[White Trash] sheds bright light on a long history of demagogic national politicking, beginning with Jackson. It makes Donald Trump seem far less unprecedented than today’s pundits proclaim.”—Slate

“Isenberg . . . has written 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

“With her strong academic background and accessible voice, Isenberg takes pains to reveal classism’s deep-seated roots.”–Entertainment Weekly

“Carefully researched…deeply relevant.” –Christian Science Monitor

The best

The middle has a voice always in these writings. A gift to the generations behind us.

story sounded so hopeless

story is terribly critical. Nothing good to say about any of the persons mentioned , nor the groups of people portrayed.....I found the story depressing and the narrator's voice did not help either...she sounded very oppressive.

White trash 400 yrs of politics

Love the history and the way it was wrote should definitely read or listen too it untold history

Like a car crash- you can't look away

This is a stunning triumph of history, sociology and human endurance. The author's research and scholarship is flawless: she relies on primary documents to make her case, knitting together personal stories and political decisions that reverberate even today. This is an eye-opening narrative of the true history of our country, blasting away the myths of America being 'classless society,' and the 'work ethic.' Even from the very beginning of the Jamestown settlement, people were divided, condemned as not being 'good enough' and relegated to the trash heap. The author moves quickly from the past to the present... this is a book that should be read, must be read and the lessons within must not be disregarded. Much of the unrest and the current divisions in our country can be explain here. Don't look for our current trumpian chaos here, this was published in 2016, but you will find all rationale for his fervent, mislead followers.

An eye opener !

It kept my attention for sure!we have not changed much in 400 years. so sad.