White Trash, The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America (2016 by Nancy Isenberg

This is a good read.  It really makes you question whether the is exceptional.  You hear politicians and their teammates say so, but is it really? 

There is and has always been racial discrimination.  That's too obvious to deny.  But there has also always been discrimination against poor whites. 

It puts neat things like To Kill a Mockingbird in a different light. It's a critique of racial discrimination, to be sure, but it also promotes negative stereotypes of the poor white. 

One strategy employed by those in power is to pit the racial minorities against the poor whites.  Jackson attacked racial minorities and did not really help the poor whites. He was not a universal suffrage guy, as advertised.  Conversely, those efforts to help the one disadvantaged group also are intended to help the other.  President Lincoln was the liberator of the slaves but also helped the poor white in his struggle against the slave power. 

The author takes it from the beginning in the 1600's and draws a straight line to last year.  The America First movement seems to validate her point.

Back to exceptionalism. Don't the elites in this country do what elites do in other countries?  They make do with what they have to stay on top the best they can.

This is an important subject and the author does it justice.