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.