what impacted that have on you? ms. isenberg: she was a very unusual person. she came to the university of wisconsin. she had to create a space for us in history program and that she was someone who was very aware not only of gender and class and racial issues in all the things she wrote about but i think she imparted to me that you also have to understand the politics of academia and the way in which politics in general, we like to believe in america that we are free agents and we are able to sort of carver own destiny, part of our carve our own destiny part of her own destiny, but we do not always good to make the decisions that we want to. she wanted to think about the larger ways culture, politics, the law shaped the way people think even though they might not be aware of it, but to take that into account in do not just take things as given. challenge them. see if it is really true. that is something that has really motivated me throughout my career, even when you read g
you said she had a way of demystifying ideologies. what impact did that have on you? ms. isenberg: she was a very unusual person. she came to the university of wisconsin to set up the women s history program. she had to create a space for us in the history program and she was someone who was very aware not only of gender and class and racial issues and all the things she wrote about, but i think she imparted to me that you also have to understand the politics of academia and the way in which politics in general, we like to believe in america that we are free agents and we are able to sort of carve our own destiny, part of her own destiny, but we do not always good to make the decisions that we want to. she wanted to think about the larger ways culture, politics, the law shaped the way people think even though they might not be aware of it, but to take that into account in do not just take things as given. challenge them. see if it is really true. that is something that has re
i think people are curious about it and that is why i wanted to write the book. i think people throw around that word without really knowing where it comes from. when i began to do more and more research, and as you know, i talk a lot about british colonization, which is not what people have never really paid attention to in talking about white trash. most people start in the antebellum south. i found an older history and i thought it was important to pay attention to language. i talk about all of the vocabulary because i think we miss something about how people think about poverty if we do not understand the language and what those words mean. brian: we have all of those words available to put on the screen, which we will do now, and there are lots of them, white trash, offscourings, lubbers, crackers, clay eaters. where did those terms come from? nancy: this is what is so curious. you will find each generation changing the vocabulary. the term i paid a lot of attention to i
what s sad is it s so true. it s so true. all right. so this is interesting because one of our producers, amanda avery, decided to take a look at the changing faces of 60 on television. all right. and this is interesting. so she went through and was looking at some old sitcoms and stuff. she found grandma esther from the waltons. take a look at her. played by ellen corby. she was only 60 when the pilot was shot in 1971. wow. she needs her roots done. compare her to 62-year-old kirstie alley. see what getting your roots done does for you? how about irene ryan? she played granny. i loved her. do you know how old she was? 50-something? 60. wow. she was 60. she doesn t have dr. patricia wexler. compare her to bernadette peters at 60 and phylicia rashad. 65. they re five years older than her. and i don t know about phyllisia but i know bernadette will not go in the sun. and she never has. never does. and she s got some of the most gorgeous
and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1-a in rockefeller plaza. good morning. welcome to today on a thursday morning. i m savannah guthrie. i m matt lauer alongside natalie morales and al roker. we have a lot of news this morning including new information about the abduction of 16-year-old hannah anderson. it s coming from newly released search warrants in the case. we ll get a live report from san diego straight ahead. we ll start with that deadly violence in egypt and new fears it is far from over. nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in cairo once again for us. richard, good morning. reporter: good morning. many of the casualties happened here, this burned out area was the heart of the biggest protest camp and now is being controlled by the egyptian security forces. that death toll? around 500, most demonstrators, but nearly 50 from the egyptian army and police. after egypt s military-backed government smashed two protest camps, today it was tryi