John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy - by Luke Mayville (Paperback)
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Highlights
- Why American founding father John Adams feared the political power of the rich--and how his ideas illuminate today's debates about inequality and its consequences Long before the "one percent" became a protest slogan, American founding father John Adams feared the power of a class he called simply "the few"--the wellborn, the beautiful, and especially the rich.
- About the Author: Luke Mayville is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for American Studies at Columbia University.
- 232 Pages
- History, United States
Description
Book Synopsis
Why American founding father John Adams feared the political power of the rich--and how his ideas illuminate today's debates about inequality and its consequences
Long before the "one percent" became a protest slogan, American founding father John Adams feared the power of a class he called simply "the few"--the wellborn, the beautiful, and especially the rich. In John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy, Luke Mayville explores Adams's deep concern with the way in which inequality threatens to corrode democracy and empower a small elite. Adams believed that wealth is politically powerful not merely because money buys influence, but also because citizens admire and even identify with the rich. Mayville explores Adams's theory of wealth and power in the context of his broader concern about social and economic disparities--reflections that promise to illuminate contemporary debates about inequality and its political consequences. He also examines Adams's ideas about how oligarchy might be countered. A compelling work of intellectual history, John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy has important lessons for today's world.Review Quotes
John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy is a most timely, valuable, and enlightening book. It shows conclusively that Adams was one of the sharpest critics of oligarchy among the American founders and, indeed, in the history of political thought. The book will generate much-needed discussion in political thought, American political studies, and contemporary democratic theory.
--John McCormick, University of Chicago
A needed examination of Adams's political thought on wealth-based aristocracy.
--Choice
Remarkably well-written and astonishingly lucid, John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy makes an absolutely central point about Adams's thought, persuasively reestablishing him as a genuine democrat in his ultimate sympathies.
--Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School
About the Author
Luke Mayville is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for American Studies at Columbia University. He is a contributor to Commonweal.