Part I: To begin the world anew. Chapter one. Taking out the trash : waste people in the New World ; Chapter two. John Locke's Lubberland : the settlements of Carolina and Georgia ; Chapter three. Benjamin Franklin's American breed : the demographics of mediocrity ; Chapter four. Thomas Jefferson's rubbish : a curious topography of class ; Chapter five. Andrew Jackson's cracker country : the squatter as common man
Part II: Degeneration of the American Breed. Chapter six. Pedigree and poor white trash : bad blood, half-breeds and clay-eaters ; Chapter seven. Cowards, Poltroons, and mudsills : civil war as class warfare ; Chapter eight. Thoroughbreds and scalawags : bloodlines and bastard stock in the age of eugenics ; Chapter nine. Forgotten men and poor folk : downward mobility and the Great Depression ; Chapter ten. The cult of the country boy : Elvis Presley, Andy Griffith, and LBJ's Great Society
Part III: The white trash makeover. Chapter eleven. Redneck roots : Deliverance, Billy Beer, and Tammy Faye ; Chapter twelve. Outing Rednecks : slumming, Slick Willie, and Sarah Palin
Chapter thirteen. America's strange breed : the long legacy of white trash.