Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A New Statesman Best Book of the Academic Presses"
"An Australian Most Anticipated Book"
"In his new book,
As Gods Among Men, Bocconi University economic historian Guido Alfani outlines how in the past, rich individuals contributed more to the common good in times of war, famine, plague and financial disaster. Today, that sense of shared responsibility is gone."
---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times"In this study of 1,000 years of economic inequality, the historian Guido Alfani looks not just at the means by which wealth was accumulated and kept – both largely unchanged – but also at the attitudes of less fortunate members of society towards the rich. Croesus-like riches have been seen as a sin, an obligation and a fact of life." * New Statesman *
"In his fascinating history,
As Gods Among Men, Guido Alfani shows how the super-rich have always bailed the rest of us out- until now." * The Telegraph *
"If ever there was a moment to take stock of the relationship between the haves and have-nots, it is surely now, during the gilded age 2.0."
---Geordie Williamson, The Australian"[An] exhaustive history of the super-rich through the ages."
---Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement"Alfani notes a pattern that unfolds 'repeatedly and systematically across history': when economic élites become ingrown, impenetrable, and 'insensitive to the plight of the masses,' societies tend to become unstable."
---Evan Osnos, New Yorker"The rich, like the poor, are always with us. In fact, over many centuries - as this wide-ranging and ambitious book tells us - the richest in society have captured more and more of the overall wealth of Western societies."
---Roderick Floud, History Today"Guido Alfani’s magisterial
As Gods Among Men offers a sweeping and welcome historical perspective on who the super-rich really are and how they got that way, blending data, biographical sketches and sociological observations reaching back to the European Middle Ages."
---Martin Sandbu, Financial Times
