A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves. In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9% that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country—and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system. They log insane hours at the office and then turn their leisure time into an excuse for more career-building, even as they rely on an underpaid servant class to power their economic success and satisfy their personal needs. They have segregated themselves into zip codes designed to exclude as many people as possible. They have made fitness a national obsession even as swaths of the population lose healthcare and grow sicker. They have created an unprecedented demand for admission to elite schools and helped to fuel the dramatic cost of higher education. They channel their political energy into symbolic conflicts over identity in order to avoid acknowledging the economic roots of their privilege. And they have created an ethos of “merit” to justify their advantages. They are all around us. In fact, they are us—or what we are supposed to want to be. In this “captivating account” (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone), Matthew Stewart argues that a new aristocracy is emerging in American society and it is repeating the mistakes of history. It is entrenching inequality, warping our culture, eroding democracy, and transforming an abundant economy into a source of misery. He calls for a regrounding of American culture and politics on a foundation closer to the original promise of America.

Using a common framework developed by a collaborative Harvard University and Brandeis University affiliated research team, this volume surveys and analyzes the strategic responses of national unions in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain to the last two decades of economic change. Also evaluated is the response of Sweden, long seen as the most successful variation of the European model, as well as EU level transnational unionism. The volume concludes with a reflection on new union positions and their implications, particularly on the question of what will happen to the "European model of society" as a consequence. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This accessible and exciting new text looks at the implications of aesthetic labour for work and employment by contextualizing debates and offering a critical approach. The origins of aesthetic labour are explored, as well as the relevant theories from business and management, and sociology. Coverage includes key topics such as: corporate strategy; recruitment and selection practices; and discrimination. Key features include: - a range of case studies from across different types of organizations and popular culture - the exploration of topics such as branding, ′lookism′, ′dressing for success′ and cosmetic surgery - suggestions for further reading.

The contributors to this book are all members of EuropEos, a multidisciplinary group of jurists, economists, political scientists, and journalists in an ongoing forum discussing European institutional issues. The essays analyze emerging shifts in common policies, institutional settings, and legitimization, sketching out possible scenarios for the European Union of the 21st century. They are grouped into three sections, devoted to economics and consensus, international projection of the Union, and the institutional framework. Even after the major organizational reforms introduced to the EU by the new Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force in December 2009, Europe appears to remain an entity in flux, in search of its ultimate destiny. In line with the very essence of EuropEos, the views collected in this volume are sometimes at odds in their specific conclusions, but they stem from a common commitment to the European construction.

'Aristocracies', 'Old Regime colonial elites' - from Adam Smith to Karl Marx and beyond, scholars have discussed their role in the rise of the modern world, in economic development and capitalism. Generally speaking and with the exception of the English landlords, the verdict has been always negative. Furthermore, historians have usually viewed the Ancien régime aristocracies and colonial elites as social groups with entirely irrational or completely apathetic attitudes towards the management of their estates. This book constitutes the first attempt to analyse the question in a more critical and historical way. It takes a directly comparative approach, covering countries from Peru to Russia and from Naples to England in the early modern period and up to the end of the 18th century. The rationale of how these elites administered their patrimonies, its political, social and sometime moral dimensions, and the real effects of all this on economic development are considered here as key aspects for a better understanding of economic life. The result is a quite different picture in which economic history is also seen as the outcome of human actions in their own social and political context.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part 1. The Aristocracy and Social Democracy: The Growth and Decline of Class Consciousness -- 1. Aristocratic Class Consciousness and Survival -- 2. The New Working Class and Its Class Consciousness -- 3. Socialist Parties Without a Mass Labor Base -- 4. The Growth and Optimism of Early Social Democracy -- 5. The Socialist Position on Democracy, on Capitalism and on the Aristocracy -- 6. The End of Socialist Growth, the Need for Non-Workers' Votes, and the Changing Working Class -- 7. From Workers' Party to People's Party, From Exclusion to Partnership -- 8. The Social Democrats' Achievements and Prospects -- 9. The Evolution of Japanese Social Democracy -- Part 2. No Aristocracy - No Social Democracy -- 10. Britain, the United States and Canada: Late Socialism, No Socialism and Little Socialism -- 11. The Aristocracy and Modernization From Without -- 12. The Modernizers' Revolution, Their Regime and Their Dilemma -- 13. Societies in the Wake of Modernizing Regimes -- 14. Labor under Post-Modernizing Regimes -- 15. The Absence of Socialist Labor Parties -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index