Tag Archives: thomas jefferson

We begin with “My Old Kentucky Home” by 19th century songwriter Stephen Foster, performed by Paul Robeson. Sung like a love song to the state of Kentucky by the Derby crowd at Churchill Downs, its real historical meaning is bleaker. The lyrics portray heartbreak: A man, sold down the river to work at a sugar plantation in the deep south, …

For “Unfounded America” we’re joined by Nancy Isenberg author of the popular and provocative new book, White Trash: The 400-year Untold Story of Class in America. Laura Miller writes of the book in Salon: Tapping into scores of sources, Isenberg traces the emergence of the white-trash stereotype from its roots in British beliefs that the working class was truly a …