As gods among men : a history of the rich in the West / Guido Alfani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alfani, Guido, 1976- author.

Contributor:

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rich people--Europe--History.

Rich people.

Rich people--North America--History.

Europe.

North America.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

xii, 420 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"All human societies, from prehistory through to today, have been characterized by some degree of economic inequality. Arguably, complex societies would not have thrived if they had been unable to concentrate and redistribute resources effectively. We frequently talk about the top 5% or 1% today but, as Guido Alfani explains in this book, concerns about the rich and super-rich and their potential to influence contemporary politics and society are nothing new - just take the Medici family and Renaissance Tuscany as one example. The medieval theologian Nicole Oresme's fear of the super-rich individual acting "as God among men" resonates with much of what present-day economist Thomas Piketty cautioned against in his landmark Capital in the Twentieth Century. As Gods Among Men represents the first scholarly attempt to provide a general overview of role and significance of the rich and the super-rich in the long run of history. With a focus on the West, particularly Europe and North America, Alfani's research spans a thousand years of history. He draws from a wealth of comparative data, as well as insights gleaned from the latest research in economic history, sociology, and anthropology, to show how society's problematic relationship with the super-rich cannot be fully understood without a careful analysis of the ways in which they have built their enormous wealth, and how they have used that wealth to gain influence. Alfani highlights important aspects of their behavior, such as their attitudes toward saving and consumption, or their propensity to act as patrons of the arts and of the sciences or as benefactors of the weakest part of society, to build up a profile of the richest members of our society and to trace patterns throughout history, underlining elements of both continuity and change over the period"-- Provided by publisher.

"How the rich and the super-rich throughout Western history accumulated their wealth, behaved (or misbehaved) and helped (or didn't help) their communities in times of crisis The rich have always fascinated, sometimes in problematic ways. Medieval thinkers feared that the super-rich would act "as gods among men"; much more recently Thomas Piketty made wealth central to discussions of inequality. In this book, Guido Alfani offers a history of the rich and super-rich in the West, examining who they were, how they accumulated their wealth and what role they played in society. Covering the last thousand years, with frequent incursions into antiquity, and integrating recent research on economic inequality, Alfani finds-despite the different paths to wealth in different eras-fundamental continuities in the behaviour of the rich and public attitudes towards wealth across Western history. His account offers a novel perspective on current debates about wealth and income disparity.Alfani argues that the position of the rich and super-rich in Western society has always been intrinsically fragile; their very presence has inspired social unease. In the Middle Ages, an excessive accumulation of wealth was considered sinful; the rich were expected not to appear to be wealthy. Eventually, the rich were deemed useful when they used their wealth to help their communities in times of crisis. Yet in the twenty-first century, Alfani points out, the rich and the super-rich-their wealth largely preserved through the Great Recession and COVID-19-have been exceptionally reluctant to contribute to the common good in times of crisis, rejecting even such stopgap measures as temporary tax increases. History suggests that this is a troubling development-for the rich, and for everyone else"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

What is wealth, and how much is needed to be rich?

Wealth concentration and the prevalence of the rich across history : an overview

On aristocracy, new and past

On innovation and technology

On finance

The curse of smaug : the saving and consumption habits of the rich

Making it to the top : an overview

Why wealth concentration can be a social problem : from Thomas Aquinas to Piketty

Patrons, benefactors, donors

The super-rich and politics

The rich in times of crisis : from the black death to Covid-19.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Alfani, Guido, 1976- As gods among men

ISBN:

9780691215730

0691215731

OCLC:

1372277469