I thought I was in control of a good part of the text, just to discover some new and seemingly undecipherable (American, I guess) idioms…

I am not sure of the meaning of this particular one: "The study presented here reveals a complicated legacy. It’s not just a question of labeling the bottom at any given time". 

After some vagrancy throught the Internet, I find nothing specific. I only see commercial definitions of "bottom" in order to label it or not (ie: if a product is a cubic box labelled all around, it might not have a real "bottom", that is a side on which be reasonably expected to rest when exposed to the potential consumer; on the other hand, if the product is, say, an apple pie, it won't be reasonable to expect it to be placed vertically on one side, since that would damage the item…).

As the finding of a bottom, important as it is, may be related with the determination of a place in the product suitable (or not) to the inclusion of relevant information to the consumer (like the expiry date, etc.), I dare to infer from here that, in this sociological use, the expression probably means that "the purpose of the research consists not only in listing the notions that globally define the problem at any given time".

Would you say that's correct?

Other than that I have no clue…

Hi CM - it is a very vague expression, isn't it? I had a look at it in the context of the surrounding text and it certainly looks like he means "bottom layers of society". But how it got past the publisher's sub-editors defeats me, unless of course one remembers that these are also Americans ...

I would have said it in English as "The study presented here reveals a complicated legacy in which it was never simply a question of applying [derogatory] labels to members of society's lowest strata at any point ..." He goes on to say that the urge to apply such labels was also motivated by a desire to rationalize the whole economic ethos of society, the labelling of its worse off people being simply one aspect to an attitude that therefore extended well beyond a simple urge to "look down" on people.

And he has a point if that's what he's saying - Americans on the whole are very adept at wearing what originated as derogatory expressions of ethnicity, poverty, back-woods origin, etc etc as badges of honour.

A lucid answer.

It means I have to take into account that some sentences would have a particularly crooked syntax (even more than what's normal in proper English, at least seen from a user of the latin word order: beyond passive voice and adjectives pointing surreptitiously to the wrong noun I may find unsuspected ellipsis, like this "bottom (of society)"). The result would make me wring my brain (and my renderings…).

And yes, absolutely. Those derogatory terms are for some a badge of honour —the "real American", as in some previous examples.

Best wishes

CM