The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats (1997)

by Jim GOAD

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
325	5	80,451	(3.8)	1
"A primal scream in defense of white working-class wage serfs....viciously funny...a politically unclassifiable polemic sure to humor, or offend, or enrage...in equal measure". -- BooklistRednecks...hillbillies...crackers...trailer trash. Whatever they're called, America's poor whites have become easy targets for ridicule and hostility in this country.A much needed reassessment of the classic caricature, The Redneck Manifesto traces the history of the white underclass and exposes the real sources of its frustrations, anger, and follies. From a provocative reevaluation of "hatemongers, gun nuts, and paranoid, tax-resisting extremists" to an explanation of why Elvis, Bigfoot, and space aliens are objects of veneration, Goad elucidates redneck politics, religion, and values in his own uniquely unusual way."A furious, profane, smart, and hilariously smart-aleck defense of working-class white culture....Something important, necessary, and long overdue has been said". -- Rod Dreher, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

ralfhype, repate, chukxs, LilyHylla, BrianMorgante, MiguelMoors, zenadun101, aabbott82, aghepa, AndrewBee

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

▾Lists

Read (256)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 1 mention

▾Member reviews

English (4) Spanish (1) All languages (5)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 4 of 4

(from the cover) America's Scapegoats: How We Got That Way and Why We're Not Going to Take it Anymore.

LanternLibrary | Oct 9, 2017 |

Many will be offended by this polemic on the hatred directed against the white underclass in America. I once loaned it too a friend who filled the margins with disdainful notes. Yet I wonder who has attempted to refute his facts or his argument, that the powers that be have divided the working classes and pitted white against black and brown to prevent them from uniting around shared economic interests. Maybe things look a lot different to a PhD who is only one generation from the cotton fields on my father's side and two on my mother's side. Her mother picked berries, peas, and apples up and down the West coast and lost the twin girls born in a migrant labor camp. When I study American literature I am struck by the casual assumption of critics that the reader is intended to despise Faulkner's Anse Bundren, despite the clues in the novel that Anse is a victim of circumstance. But I digress. Read this book if you want a different view of white privilege and the economic history of America. (

)

ritaer | Jun 6, 2012 |

There’s a lot to Goad’s book and I hope the historical and social punch in the face it offers does not get lost in my reaction. The sources he cites run from Edward Abbey to Howard Zinn. The first third reads as an alternative history lesson, one that made perfect sense when I read it, but the implications of which probably didn’t stay with me when I initially learned it because extreme leftism embraces a notion of continuous, uninterrupted white privilege that is heresy to deny. The middle third was a look at the contemporary mores of the working class/white trash culture and the last third was a sociological look at how, in America where we all wanna be rich or die trying, no one seems to get the fact that we at the bottom benefit the powers that keep us here each time we snap at each other’s neck.

Read the rest of the review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/?p=276 (

)

oddbooks | Jan 25, 2010 |

News Bulletin for the New York Times - indeed, and shockingly, there appear to be points of view in conflict with its pronouncements from on high - there might (I feel faint) be other versions of the truth and, disturbingly, White Christian based people may not all be blessed, rich, villainous cretins as described by the co-religionists at the Times. Herr Goad must be reported to a higher authority (if there is one over the New York Times, perhaps, the Jerusalem Post) and he should be made to suffer for his sins against the truth from New York. Mr. Goad goes so far as to suggest that White People may have endured more than the Negroes and that they as a group actually exist as a larger underclass than the darks. (

)

BayanX | Sep 28, 2019 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 4 of 4

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1997

People/Characters

Important places

Portland, Oregon, USA

St. Johns, Portland, Oregon, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

"You're writing about the white trash? Well, I hope you don't make fun of 'em like the rest of the media does." -A guy who still lives in my old neighborhood

Dedication

Dedicated to everyone who lives between New York and L.A.

First words

Don't you just hate 'em?

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Machado, Ethan G.

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/bizarremag.com

Yokel

▾Book descriptions

"A primal scream in defense of white working-class wage serfs....viciously funny...a politically unclassifiable polemic sure to humor, or offend, or enrage...in equal measure". -- BooklistRednecks...hillbillies...crackers...trailer trash. Whatever they're called, America's poor whites have become easy targets for ridicule and hostility in this country.A much needed reassessment of the classic caricature, The Redneck Manifesto traces the history of the white underclass and exposes the real sources of its frustrations, anger, and follies. From a provocative reevaluation of "hatemongers, gun nuts, and paranoid, tax-resisting extremists" to an explanation of why Elvis, Bigfoot, and space aliens are objects of veneration, Goad elucidates redneck politics, religion, and values in his own uniquely unusual way."A furious, profane, smart, and hilariously smart-aleck defense of working-class white culture....Something important, necessary, and long overdue has been said". -- Rod Dreher, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary