White Trash. The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

Merits: Nancy Isenberg is the T. Harry Williams Professor of American History at LSU and the author of Fallen Founder The Life of Aaron Burr, which won the Oklahoma Book Award for best book in nonfiction.

Material: This book argues against the claim that America is a class-free society and a land of equal opportunity. Isenberg argues that America’s underclass has been disdained and neglected since the seventeenth century and highlights evidence both political and scientific stretching over four hundred years.

Grade: Black Jesus. This book shatters the myth that in America, liberty and hard work are paths that guarantee social mobility for all. America’s destitute have been told to just pull themselves up by the same bootstraps that politicians have been hanging them by since the country’s inception.