![]() ![]() ![]() Known at various times as waste people, rubbish, mudsills, scum, squatters, crackers, rednecks, and trailer trash (among other demeaning slurs), Isenberg uses the all too familiar phrase ‘white trash’ to describe their less-than-inspiring history. Reminiscent of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, she depicts an elitist, upper class gentry prevailing alongside a permanent underclass of the terminally poor. Nancy Isenberg, however, plunges deep into the murky waters the American story as she examines almost five centuries of white, European life on this continent, retelling the glittering story from the perspective of the underdogs. Winston Churchill famously said, “History is written by the victors,” and like other victors, America prefers to feature her most flattering side in her histories. They are lazy, and because they have brought poverty upon themselves, offering them any help will only enable their slothfulness further. As I grew older, I learned that even though it is a lovely myth, accepting it as true has a very dark side: Those who do not ‘succeed’ simply do not try hard enough. You know the one: America is a land of equal opportunity, a country where anyone can get ahead if they are willing to work hard, a classless nation where one’s future is not predetermined by one’s birth. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in AmericaĪs a child, I completely accepted the idealized American myth. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |