In the late 1930s bombshell of a book appeared which told the story of the lords of wealth and their glittering clans. It was called AMERICA'S SIXTY FAMILIES. It rocked the nation and became a classic. Lundberg showed how America was ruled by a plutocracy of inherited wealth, even under the New Deal. At the time he could only provide a sampling of the economic and political patterns of those families, which, for one reason or another, had come under public scrutiny. In addition to the Sixty Families he dealt with in depth, he was able to outline the probable holdings of a few hundred other families. The author, in writing THE RICH AND THE SUPER-RICH, had at his disposal infinitely richer data, monographs, Congressional investigations than were available three decades ago. They have made it possible for him to give us a book which is much more than a mere updating of AMERICA'S SIXTY FAMILIES. It is, rather, a systematic study of the entire wealthy class and its familial structure. (In one important aspect it resembles AMERICA'S SIXTY FAMILIES: It is written for the layman to awaken the reader to the real and little-known situation.) These families have all the old levers of power and wealth plus a whole host of new ones created for them during the intervening decades by the politicians, lawyers and judges who serve them. Although published in 1968 and rocketed to the top of the bestseller list, the wealth managed by these families remains a significant force in today's economy and should not be underestimated.

A popular entrepreneur explains that true happiness comes not from wealth but from inner contentment and shares personal stories of his own rise to success and how he never failed to remain grounded during the process.

"A senior editor at Mother Jones dives into the lives of the extremely rich, showing the fascinating, otherworldly realm they inhabit-and the insidious ways this realm harms us all"--

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but recently what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Forget the 1 percent—Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest 0.1 percent who are outpacing the rest of us at breakneck speed. Most of these new fortunes are not inherited, amassed instead by perceptive businesspeople who see themselves as deserving victors in a cutthroat international competition. With empathy and intelligence, Plutocrats reveals the consequences of concentrating the world’s wealth into fewer and fewer hands. Propelled by fascinating original interviews with the plutocrats themselves, Plutocrats is a tour de force of social and economic history, the definitive examination of inequality in our time.

Fewer than 100 people own and control more wealth than 50 per cent of the world’s population. The Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich is a landmark multidisciplinary evaluation of both the lives and lifestyles of the super-rich, as well as the processes that underpin super-wealth generation and its unequal distribution. Drawing on international case studies, leading experts from across the social sciences offer 22 accessible and coherently organized chapters, which critically analyse a range of topics including: • the legitimacy of extreme wealth from a moral economic perspective • biographies of illicit super-wealth • London’s housing markets • how the very wealthy fly • the environmental consequences of super-rich lives • crafting immigration policies to attract the rich. Students and scholars studying a host of topics such as development studies, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology will find this book eminently engaging. It will also be of great interest to public commentators, charitable organizations and NGOs concerned with wealth and income distributions.