How 'White Trash' Became an Identity, and Its 400-Year History
Writer Nancy Isenberg explains a history of class of America that many don't know about.
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"We have to understand in America we do have a class system," says Nancy Isenberg in the above video. "We've always had a class system, and we often don't connect it to a British understanding of rural society."
And that, explains Isenberg, is where the old term "white trash" comes from.
Crawford Kilian reviewed Isenberg's book, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, recently in the Tyee. It's an important book, he writes, "because it throws out the received wisdom of American egalitarianism and democracy, showing their 21st century country to be the creation of 16th century English social engineers."
In this lecture at Alabama's Spring Hill College, Isenberg shares the key points from her research. It's an insightful look at how white trash and redneck identities have been embraced by some poor Americans as what she calls "an authentic heritage."