White Trash: Race and Class in America

This collection is devoted to exploring stereotypes about the social conditions of poor whites in the United States and comparing these stereotypes with the social reality.

This collection of essays suffers somewhat from occasional appearances in its pages of the plodding and pretentious prose of academia, but despite that fault, these essays on poor white Americans are, in general, quite interesting. To be honest, when the scholars trip over their jargon while explaining why Bubba and Jolene constitute a "debased other," it can be more fun than a free Pabst beer at the monster truck pull. Some essays stand out. Writer Michael Berube's memoir of life in a 1950s trailer park in Bayonne, New Jersey, is well-written and touching; and University of Southern California film professor Constance Penley's disquisition on white trash pornography, entitled "Crackers and Whackers" is bound to raise eyebrows. And Gael Sweeney provides the fitting finale, an essay entitled "The King of White Trash Culture: Elvis Presley and the Aesthetics of Excess."