White Trash

Nancy Isenberg traces the origins of America's class system from British colonial efforts to export the poor as 'waste people' to the New World, challenging myths of a classless society.

The book surveys political rhetoric, literature, and policies over four centuries, showing how poor whites influenced events from the rise of the Republican Party and the Civil War to eugenics, the New Deal, and modern reality TV, while highlighting ongoing disdain from elites and the illusion of social mobility.