Kim Phillips-Fein's 'Country of Lords' exposes America's hidden history of anti-egalitarianism, linking figures from John Adams and Andrew Carnegie to modern tech titans like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, revealing a continuous 'fight against equality' that fuels today's extreme disparities and threatens democracy.
Kim Phillips-Fein's new book, 'Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America,' offers a concise and hard-hitting historical analysis of the forces that have opposed equality in the U.S. From the founding fathers to contemporary tech billionaires, Phillips-Fein traces a lineage of anti-egalitarian thought and action. She highlights John Adams's ambivalence towards excessive egalitarianism, explores preachers of race-based inequality like George Fitzhugh and Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, and delves into the complex figure of Andrew Carnegie, who, despite his philanthropy, believed in the necessity of wealth concentration while acknowledging its political dangers. The narrative extends to 20th-century figures such as William Shockley, a proto-tech mogul who embraced racist pseudoscience, and culminates with modern 'techno-fascists' like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. These contemporary figures, Phillips-Fein argues, share a skepticism towards traditional institutions and advocate for disruption and monopolistic control, believing that genius justifies commanding societal resources. The book contends that this persistent 'long fight against equality' has directly contributed to the current glaring social and economic inequality, prompting urgent questions about the future of democracy in an era of extreme economic hierarchy.
