Joan Walsh, editor at large for salon.com, writes persuasively about how the Republican Party co-opted the white working class and how the Democrats helped them do it in her new work, but it's a book for true believers. I doubt it will be read by those outside the progressive movement. Further, my guess is that the first part of the title–What's the Matter with White People?–will be a point of attack by those on the other side of the political spectrum. It's a shame...though an imperfect read, Walsh makes some strong points.

An Irish-American who grew up Catholic in a Democratic family filled with the sort of blue collar Democrats that populated urban centers in the East and Mid-West for decades, Walsh bought into her father's romantic view that the Black Irish share an affinity with African Americans because of how the Irish had been mistreated, first by the English, and then in U.S. as immigrants, for centuries. Bias against the Irish in the US was a result of their Catholic faith and heavy drinking, which eventually put them on the wrong side of the abolitionist movement, which also had strong ties to the temperance movement. This isn't news, but it provides a great deal of context, and, along with Ken Burn's Prohibition documentary last year for PBS, helped me put this part of U.S. history in proper perspective.

It is against this backdrop that Walsh moves forward in time, detailing the strong ties between Catholics, the white working class, and the Democratic Party. She discusses the development of unions, the New Deal, and how Nixon's Southern Strategy worked not only in the South, it created a wedge between the white working class and the Democrats in urban America. Republicans and an increasingly active lobbying effort by pro-business forces used unions and race and a dissonant progressive movement to break the long-held ties altogether by the 1970s.

I liked a great deal of the book. Walsh's immediate and extended family histories as well as her work in progressive politics and advocacy journalism make the history personal, and by doing so it becomes more easily understandable and accessible. That said though, by the time she reaches the 2008 primaries and general election, I began to lose interest. Walsh never waivers, but offers no solutions. Perhaps this is her point. After all, the subtitle of her book is “why we long for a golden age that never was.” To offer solutions, then, would lead us to a non-existant promised land, a mirage. Maybe so, but the litany of what went wrong becomes intolerably depressing.

Even more so, though, Walsh's personal connection to her thesis–what actually made the book for the most part more interesting and accessible–shifts the narrative too strongly from history to her story. Her attempt to meld the macro with the micro is not entirely successful. Yes, through her daughter's choices she begins to bridge the gap, but it's simply not enough because of that lack of prescriptive measures. A small ray of sunshine just isn't enough.

What's the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was remains a book worth reading if for no other reason than the history, context, and perspective it provides. Walsh's attempts to integrate her personal and familial experiences with history as a whole may not work as well as she expected, but it takes the reader part of the way. My recommendation would be to take a breather by the time she reaches 2008 in her analysis, letting what came before fully process before tackling the last sections of the book.

(The digital download of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley.)