ARISTOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE

On the often obscured and yet powerful persistence of aristocracy in the United States.

The word aristocracy stands in stuffy contrast to supposedly American ideals, chief among them meritocracy and democracy. However, argues American history professor and author Isenberg (White Trash: The Untold 400-Year History of Class in America, 2016, etc.), American society embodied aristocratic principles since its very inception and continues to do so today. The growth and accumulated power of banks and corporations, enriched rather than curtailed by the federal government and aided by scores of lobbyists, crowned elites, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan, whose vast corporate empires and those of others were structured to exist in perpetuity. The purpose of esteemed colleges and universities, disproportionately populated by the offspring of the wealthy and well-connected, is “the preservation and training of America’s future elite.” Contrary to the notion of success as a ladder that anyone with enough talent might ascend, connections, wealth, and biases go a long way toward determining a favorable outcome; as the author puts it, “preferment has always been a more reliable way to understand social mobility than merit.” The rare member of the “worthy” poor who breaks into the ranks of the elite is expected to “realign their interests upward, forging an identification with the upper classes,” reinforcing the aristocratic structure rather than threatening it. For the American class of aristocrats, “the public good was never the goal….Expansion was their ruling ambition.” Isenberg’s astute examination illuminates how the craving for not solely wealth but status-driven power and far-reaching influence have shaped our contemporary society. In thorough and accessible prose, she conveys how what we understand as the “natural” courses of business, politics, and the distribution of wealth are anything but—a valuable realization if there is to be any hope of creating a more equitable future.

A richly detailed analysis of class systems with as much relevance to today as at the time of our nation’s founding.