White Trash History was a book I desperately wanted to finish but couldn't because the library loan ended and the book was so damn long. And it's my own stupid fault - I broke my rule - I kept reading long after I should have given up. It didn't hook me in the first chapter, then the second, then the third, and still I went on. I was 35% of the way through the book when the digital loan expired, and I decided to post a partial review because the reading I did accomplish took real effort.
Nancy Isenberg's topic was fascinating, and she gets points for exploring it in such grave detail that I don't know if anyone would ever be able to best her research. I learned about the foundations of American society, slavery, a good deal about the civil war, and more than I ever could have imagined about Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and a little bit about Jefferson Davis. (Most of them were two-faced scoundrels.) I learned about the clay eaters of North Carolina, the anti-slavery laws in Georgia, American Indians, land bequests, and the use of America as a dumping ground for England's poor. The book was filled with nuggets of history that I had never come across before. I don't regret trying to read it.
At some point I do expect to pick this up and finish it, but it won't be in this year. Reading two books a week greatly depends on a book's length and momentum, and this one was simply too long and mentally demanding to accomplish in such a short period of time.
Props to you, Nancy Isenberg, for stopping the Ardent Reader in her tracks!
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