A Provocative Question

Sat Nov 26 12:48:02 CST 2016

I finished "White Trash:  The Untold Story of Class in America”  and it really is a good book.  My only problem is that the premise: 

"Throughout its history, the United States has always had a class system. It is not only directed by the top 1 percent and supported by a contented middle class. We can no longer ignore the stagnant, expendable bottom layers of society in explaining the national identity.”

gets a bit lost in the middle.  Isenberg is a historian by trade.  There’s also a bit too much contemporary stuff for my tastes. I was reading it more as a history book but in Part 3 it takes a long look (too long) at the contemporary scene. 

The Epilogue ties up all the ends and makes a bow - 

I’d recommend it if you’re interested in "the history of class in America” and can tolerate a couple chapters on Elvis,  Dolly,  Billy Beer,  Tammy Faye,  the Dukes of Hazzard and Sarah Palin.  

Becky 

> On Nov 25, 2016, at 1:35 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> I’ve read Hillbilly Elegy - it’s a great memoir but it has other things to say.   The author,  J.D. Vance, a self-proclaimed ex-hillbilly who understands he was very, very lucky,  calls on the now chronically unemployed in the Kentucky coal mines and Cincinnati areas to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop being lazy.  He also calls for more effective assistance in re-training.  He says other things too - It’s mainly because of this book that I have only lately come to really support Bernie - (Bernie goes much, much further in the area of re-training and tuition free college.)  Vance is Republican but didn’t vote for Trump  (I had to look that up - it’s not in the book.  The book was NOT written to “explain” Trump but it goes a long ways toward doing that.  He’s not mentioned that I remember.) 
> 
> I’ve currently almost finished reading  White Trash - about 50 pages to go.   It’s a history of the lowliest whites in our society and how they came about from the days of pre-colonial Massachusetts and Virginia through the swamp people of North Carolina,  the Civil War,  Westward Expansion,  the Wars and Depression,  through Elvis and LBJ and so on.   Trump is mentioned in passing at the tail end. (I did a search.)   This book is dense - jam-packed with all sorts of tidbits I’d like more information about.  But there’s an extensive Notes section so … ??? -  it’s kind of overwhelming but Isenberg writes nicely.  Definitely a history book. 
> 
> I’ve got Strangers in their Own Land  on my radar but I might have to give the subject a break for a few weeks - 
> 
> Becky 
> 
> 
>> On Nov 25, 2016, at 5:16 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> i was reminded yesterday by David Kipen that Pynchon wrote of the inability of the student (New) Left to connect with the working class in the intro to SLOW LEARNER. 
>> And this reminds me that it is still identity politics to think and say 'white working class' as I and most are doing. Always respect Pynchon' s precision, I repeat to myself. 
>> 
>> New relevant books: Strangers in their Own Land ( excerpts around), White Trash and Hillbilly Elegy.
>> 
>> I learned from a polling strategist that since race is ascertainable from voting records, they report and the mainstream media simply uses "whites" and "blacks" ( along with Hispanics and Others (say) in their reductionist way, fostering the bad shit. 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Nov 24, 2016, at 3:09 PM, Thomas Eckhardt <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Am 23.11.2016 um 20:48 schrieb kelber at mindspring.com:
>>>> 
>>>> http://fortune.com/2016/11/11/trump-voters-lynn-nottage/
>>> 
>>> Very interesting, thank you.
>>> 
>>> I would like to learn more. Are there any other contemporary writers addressing the situation of the working class in the US today? The impact of the war on terror, the impact of globalisation?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> 
> Becky
> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

Becky
https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l