Rating: 
Summary: A shockingly good read!
Review: As a black man married to a white woman in a southern state, I found Goad's book to be interesting. For years, many people in this country have been talking about class vs. race. It is about time someone put these thoughts in the form of a book. Reading this book, you can truly feel the author's anger and rage at the raw deal that his ancestors recieved when they came to these shores.Most white Americans (of anglo/Irish/scottish descent) have no idea that the majority of their forebears came here as transportees, also known as convicts. After all, why would Britain transport convicts to Austrailia when the Americas were so darned close? This book is a good read for anyone that needs a historical reality check.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the time to read
Review: Mr. Goad has ground out a vicously funny book on the angst of the white underclass, an angst that has been largely ignored until now. He pulls out bits of history that will make you sit up and re-read again to see if you saw it right the first time (case in point: white endentured servants being SOLD in 1700's America). The major problem with the book is Goad's, for lack of a better word, whining that bubbles to the surface. Most of the problems he lists in the book that confronts him or people he knows could be solved if they'd shut up and work to solve them rather than turn to alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs.
Rating:
Summary: original and provocative
Review: this is a terrific book. excellent writing--profane, vivid, polemical--and the reasoning is solid. intend to use it as one text in an undergraduate class on the history and theory of freedom of expression to help students think about the folly of hate speech regulations.
Rating: 
Summary: Mind-blowing...A must read.
Review: This book presents American history as it was documented BEFORE the revisionists got a crack at it. I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that this book did not inspire a dialouge in the mainstream media; it's knowledge such as this that MUST be disseminated before there will be any kind of "reunification".
Rating:
Summary: Goad Starts Off Illuminating, Ends Up Shooting His Foot
Review: As the permanent social underclass, and "the only cardboard figure left standing in our ethnic shooting gallery," rednecks, hillbillies, trailor trash (and other synonyms) have gotten a rotten deal. Goad demonstrates fine scholarship in tracing the history of trans-racial class abuse from European surfdom to Appalachian coal miners. He also makes it abundantly clear that he has been screwed along with them, and with this emphasis the manifesto hits its central problem with persistency: is this a call to arms to rectify a social illness or is it a chance for Goad to shoot off his foaming mouth? He is understandably personal with his anger, and some fury is expected, but he continuously drowns his truly fine scholarship and important points with tail-chasing trash-talking, trying to come up with the best one line zinger. Goad should have taken a hint from historically significant manifestoes and noticed a very strong common thread: succinctness. Goad is unfailingly too self-absorbed to realize that his points stand much better without layers of his fluff and spitting. The issue especially surfaces with the discussion of black pride. The important point which Goad makes is that blacks and whites have historically been a community, as everyone was abused, and the majority of racial spite has been orchestrated by the upper ranks to keep the poor man fighting the poor man instead of his oppressor. But he fails to suggest that there should be reunification! Instead, he defends himself vehemently against taking responsibility for the abuse of blacks, and embarrasingly narrows the focus with lines like "I mean, when did everyone stop hating the Vikings for pillaging Scotland?" What starts out as solid evidence, fine argumentation, and a true-hearted aim of righting the wrongs paid to the white underclass is eclipsed by Goad's longwinded slander, thereby reducing the righteous project to another poorly managed filibuster.
Rating:
Summary: God damn!
Review: God damn, I said! This book throws open the closet door to expose class problems -- which have been most of The Problem all along. The Redneck Manifesto was more educational than all four years of college (of course, it was a college in the South -- gotcha! redneck prejudice at work!). The author gets a little self-involved a few times, but it doesn't take away from his painfully honest & accurate depiction of working-class whites. This sucker should be required reading for high schoolers.
Rating:
Summary: Goad finally speaks for a group without a voice.
Review: Jim Goad undertook the task of speaking for a group of people for whom there has been no voice. Redneck/white trash America has a blunt, funny, brilliant, and honest voice in Goad. His book looks at this country and it's history in a new, perhaps long overdue, light. His assertions and accusations may seem wild, but he has the facts to support them. Thanks and praise to Jim Goad.
Rating:
Summary: A hard hitting book about "Class Prejudice".
Review: The Redneck Manifesto is an important, hard hitting book about hidden forms of bigotry. How much does the common white person really understand about their heritage ? This book will tell you more than you ever wanted to know. Reading it helped me realize that we are all created more equal than I ever realized.
Rating:
Summary: now I know what was always bugging me about this issue
Review: This book is anti-racist. There's a catch: Goad doesn't like racism against whites any better than he likes it when directed at anyone else. In US society that's often not exactly what people mean when they mention the word 'racism'. There is a lot of shock value. I, like many people, am conditioned to despise racial slurs. Yet racial slurs against one group are tolerated, on the assumption that all white males are somehow in league to keep everyone else squashed. Goad's use of racially offensive terms serves his purpose: to make clear to people that 'redneck' and 'cracker' are as offensive as 'nigger' or 'greaser'. Hopefully people will gather not only the above from Goad's book, but furthermore the notion that strife between poor 'people of colour' and poor whites is to the detriment of both and to the benefit of corporate interests that do not wish to be challenged. You want to imagine a scenario that would scare the CEOs of the USA into brown underwear mode? Imagine if poor and disadvantaged people of all colours stopped throwing bricks at one another and identified their real enemies. As Orwell said, 'if there is hope, it lies in the proles.' _Redneck Manifesto_ makes a very good case for an end to racism--against anyone--so that the wasted energy can be focused on the general good.
Rating:
Summary: A good kick in the ass for the non-thinkers of America
Review: One of the greatest, most vicious books I've ever read. It's sure to offend, but only because it hits home and has dangerously true ideas. I challenge anyone to read this book and not be moved in some way.
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