Description
Book SynopsisA contemporary companion to C. Wright Mills' landmark work The Power Elite, Heather Gautney provides a fresh critique of elites for the new millennium and an updated, comprehensive look at the structure of American power and its tethers around the world.
Trade ReviewBuilding on the rich legacy of Franz Neumann and C. Wright Mills, Heather Gautney's brilliant and courageous book lays bare the complex dynamics of the corporate, political, military, and cultural elites who vacate public life and common good with vast greed and manipulated fear! This powerful and profound text shows what the road to American fascism looks like if we do not heed her call for radical democratic action! * Cornel West, former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard University, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, and author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters *
In this sweeping historical account, Gautney not only details the increasing concentration of power and wealth in the hands of corporate, political, military, and media elites, but also skillfully analyzes the economic and political structures that facilitate this process. This worthy successor to Mills' classic polemic reveals the enormous obstacles that face any project for democracy and equality in the US. * Michael Hardt, author of The Subversive 70s *
In the half century since the pioneering sociologist C.W. Mills published The Power Elite, the rulers of this country have grown richer than Midas, more rapacious, more unaccountable even as they've become more hostile to the interests of the general welfare. Now, Heather Gautney gives us a much-needed follow-up study into how the ruling class rules, how it maintains such misery in the midst of extraordinary wealth. Gautney's research should be required reading for all. Make it the one-city-one-book for every town and college in the nation. Hand it out to new citizens at their swearing-in ceremonies. Quickly publish a young-adult version for children. Read it, and act. * Greg Grandin, Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale University *
At a time of extreme wealth inequality and billionaire dominance, Gautney places the critical observations of C. Wright Mills into new historic context. The New Power Elite illuminates, with sociological imagination and insight, the new structures of concentrated wealth and power that have captured our politics, culture, and economy. An essential read for our oligarchic times. * Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies, and author of The Wealth Hoarders *
This illuminating volume helps readers understand events from the overthrow of the democratically elected Chilean government in 1973 to the power dynamics and erosion of social norms that set the stage for the January 6 insurrection in the US. * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Power Elite Chapter 1: The State, Part I Chapter 2: The State, Part II Chapter 3: The Military Chapter 4: Wall Street Chapter 5: Billionaires Chapter 6: Celebrity Chapter 7: Publics Conclusion Notes Index
