In pursuit of privilege : a history of New York City's upper class & the making of a Metropolis / Clifton Hood.
2017
F128.3 .H68 2017 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
In pursuit of privilege : a history of New York City's upper class & the making of a Metropolis / Clifton Hood.
Author
Hood, Clifton, author.
ISBN
9780231172172 (paperback)
0231172176 (paperback)
9780231172165 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0231172168 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780231542951 (e-book)
0231172176 (paperback)
9780231172165 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0231172168 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780231542951 (e-book)
Published
New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]
Copyright
©2017
Language
English
Description
xviii, 488 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Call Number
F128.3 .H68 2017
Summary
"Clifton Hood traces the history of the elite class of New York City and the institutions they created in their relentless pursuit of privilege. While they were responsible for the creation of intuitions such as Columbia University, the New York Public Library system, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and provided skilled leadership in eras of immense turmoil, the idea of a privileged class clashes with the American democratic ideal. And, in fact, this upper class clashed with the rising professional class of bankers, lawyers, and other executives who increasingly rose in prestige and power as time rolled on. In Pursuit of Privilege traces the history of this elite class over two centuries, focusing on decades of upheaval and great change (such as the wars of the 1780s, 1860s, 1940s and the urban upheaval in the 1820s and 1970s), and argues the upper class was not born in the Gilded Age, but that the late nineteenth century was one of many periods where the elites wielded great power and influence and profoundly shaped, for better and for worse, the history of New York and America."--Provided by publisher.
"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."--Publisher's description
"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."--Publisher's description
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Table of Contents
Introduction: The upper class is a foreign country
"The best mart on the continent:" The 1750s and 1760s
Uncertain adjustments: The 1780s and 1790s
Wealth: The 1820s & beyond
All for the Union: The 1860s
A dynamic businessman's aristocracy: The 1890s
The ways of millionaireville: The 1890s
Making spaces of their own: The 1940s
The antielitist elite: the 1970s and beyond
Conclusion: The limits of antielitism.
"The best mart on the continent:" The 1750s and 1760s
Uncertain adjustments: The 1780s and 1790s
Wealth: The 1820s & beyond
All for the Union: The 1860s
A dynamic businessman's aristocracy: The 1890s
The ways of millionaireville: The 1890s
Making spaces of their own: The 1940s
The antielitist elite: the 1970s and beyond
Conclusion: The limits of antielitism.