Ellen Marcolongo

“Historical mythmaking is made possible only by forgetting. We have to begin, then, with the first refusal to face reality: most colonizing schemes that took root in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British America were built on privilege and subordination, not any kind of proto-democracy”
― Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

“North Carolina forged a lasting legacy as what we might call the first white trash colony.”
― Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

“Throughout its history, the United States has always had a class system. It is not only directed by the top 1 percent and supported by a contented middle class. We can no longer ignore the stagnant, expendable bottom layers of society in explaining the national identity.”
― Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

“It was as if marriage had been a long, complicated meal, and now there was this lovely dessert.”
― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge