Class Matters

A uniquely personal yet deeply informed exploration of the hidden history of class in American life From the decks of the Mayflower straight through to Donald Trumps American carnage, class has always played a role in American life. In this remarkable work, Steve Fraser twines our nations past with his own familys history, deftly illustrating how class matters precisely because Americans work so hard to pretend it doesnt. He examines six signposts of American historythe settlements at Plymouth and Jamestown; the ratification of the Constitution; the Statue of Liberty; the cowboy; the kitchen debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev; and Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speechto explore just how pervasively class has shaped our national conversation. With a historians intellectual command and a riveting narrative voice, Fraser interweaves these examples with his own pastincluding his false arrest on charges of planning to blow up the Liberty Bell during the Civil Rights erato tell a story both urgent and timeless.