White trash (Escoria blanca)

In her groundbreaking story about the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg exposes the crucial legacy of the embarrassing, ever-present, and occasionally entertaining white trash. The voters who put Trump in the White House have been a permanent part of the American fabric: the poor, marginalized and landless have existed from the time of the first British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. Called "trash," "lazy scammers," "clay eaters" or "crackers" in the 1850s, the downtrodden were known to have prematurely aged children who were distinguished by their yellow skin, tattered clothing, and listless attitudes. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought almost as much over class issues as it was over slavery. On the other hand, the white scum has always been at the center of major debates about the character of national identity. Examining political rhetoric, popular literature, and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg questions the myths of America's supposed class-free society, where freedom and hard work guarantee social mobility.