In pursuit of privilege: a history of New York City's upper class & the making of a Metropolis
Introduction: The upper class is a foreign country -- "The best mart on the continent:" The 1750s and 1760s -- Uncertain adjustments: The 1780s and 1790s -- Immense wealth: The 1820s & beyond -- All for the union: The 1860s -- A dynamic businessmen's aristocracy: The 1890s -- The...
| Summary: | Introduction: The upper class is a foreign country -- "The best mart on the continent:" The 1750s and 1760s -- Uncertain adjustments: The 1780s and 1790s -- Immense wealth: The 1820s & beyond -- All for the union: The 1860s -- A dynamic businessmen's aristocracy: The 1890s -- The ways of millionaireville: The 1890s -- Making spaces of their own: The 1940s -- The anti-elitist elite: the 1970s & beyond -- Conclusion: The limits of anti-elitism A history that extends from the 1750s to the present, In Pursuit of Privilege recounts upper-class New Yorkers' struggle to create a distinct world guarded against outsiders, even as economic growth and democratic opportunity enabled aspirants to gain entrance. Despite their efforts, New York City's upper class has been drawn into the larger story of the city both through class conflict and through their role in building New York's cultural and economic foundations. In Pursuit of Privilege describes the famous and infamous characters and events at the center of this extraordinary history, from the elite families and wealthy tycoons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the Wall Street executives of today. From the start, upper-class New Yorkers have been open and aggressive in their behavior, keen on attaining prestige, power, and wealth. Clifton Hood sharpens this characterization by merging a history of the New York economy in the eighteenth century with the story of Wall Street's emergence as an international financial center in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the dominance of New York's financial and service sectors in the 1980s. Bringing together several decades of upheaval and change, he shows that New York's upper class did not rise exclusively from the Gilded Age but rather from a relentless pursuit of privilege, affecting not just the urban elite but the city's entire cultural, economic, and political fabric. |
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| Item Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 0231172168 |