Like any good publishing house when one of its books emerged at just the right time to guarantee increased sales, Penguin arranged for Professor Isenberg to prepare a “Preface to the Paperback Edition,” and it is here that she is most explicit about her argument. Trump emerged victorious, thanks to the Electoral College vote, both books were front and center in the ensuing post-election brouhaha, as the commentariat tried yet again to save face. And, like Vance’s work, Isenberg’s book soon was dragged into a raging debate over the nature of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s “base.” In the process, both books were transformed by the “commentariat,” well-educated columnists who had pontificated about the Trump phenomenon for months-and had been proven wrong time and again- into a template that might help them understand Trump voters and, thus–perhaps–get something right for a change. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (2016), Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, had the good fortune to be published during the tumultuous 2016 presidential campaign. Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Old History of Class in America.
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