{"product_id":"country-of-lords-neo-aristocrats-social-darwinists-tech-utopians-and-the-long-fight-against-equality-in-america","title":"Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Pulitzer finalist charts the long history of the American political conviction that all people are not created equal.-- \"Publishers Weekly, \"Spring 2026 Preview: History Top Ten\"\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEnlightening and shocking. The brilliant historian Kim Phillips-Fein delivers a necessary history of the scandalous but tenacious resistance to the emancipation Americans still need.--Samuel Moyn, Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and author of The Last Utopia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAn audacious argument that the American intellectual tradition is composed of not just egalitarian principles but also of many anti-democratic ones. With care and erudition, \n\u003cem\u003eCountry of Lords\u003c\/em\u003e shows that the excesses of today's far right intelligentsia are far from new.--Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith an artful pen and a breezy style, Kim Phillips-Fein takes the reader on a revealing tour of the ideas and people inhabiting a dark and under-recognized continuity in American history: those committed to values that are too often seen as \"un-American\" but whose thought and power we ignore at our peril. An eye-opening read.--Jefferson Cowie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom's Dominion\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoth timely and necessary, this book describes the evolution and persistence of anti-Enlightenment apologias for political and material inequality that today, more than ever, threaten core American values, morals, and democracy itself.--David Nasaw, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Wounded Generation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPowerful, expansive, and penetrating, \n\u003cem\u003eCountry of Lords\u003c\/em\u003e confounds our assumptions about America's political traditions and sensibilities. Reaching back to the world of the founders and far ahead to that of the tech titans, it demands a new type of reckoning.--Steven Hahn, author of Illiberal America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith energy and thoughtful scholarship, Kim Phillips-Fein, one of our most gifted historians, explains why every generation has had to fight to keep the egalitarian hopes at the foundations of our republic alive.--E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKim Philips-Fein has dug deep into US history and excavated a rogues gallery of men with bad, mad and even dangerous ideas. If you want to understand where we are today, this lively--and sobering--intellectual history will help.--Dr. Anya Schiffrin, editor of Media Capture in the Digital Age\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStriking... a rousing and worrisome counter-history of a uniquely American strain of anti-democratic political thought.-- \"Publishers Weekly (starred review)\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of American history is often told as a hard-won march toward the promise of equality, derived from Thomas Jefferson's famous proclamation that \"all men are created equal.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut this inspiring story obscures a parallel tradition: an enduring and organized argument against equality itself. Again and again, influential Americans have asserted a fundamental inequality among human beings, arguing that the social, economic, and racial hierarchies in which some groups of people rule over others are not only natural but good.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eCountry of Lords\u003c\/em\u003e acclaimed historian Kim Phillips-Fein traces this argument for inequality through six vivid archetypes. She discusses the natural aristocrats, such as John Adams, who feared the tumult of too much democracy; the social Darwinists, led by Yale professor William Graham Sumner, who blamed the poor for their own miseries; those who preached a gospel of production, including Henry Ford, who wanted an industrial hierarchy in which the \"best\" people ruled over compliant inferiors; utilitarian racists who advocated for eugenics and a racial hierarchy; meritocrats like Harvard psychologist Richard Hernstein who described an economic caste system based on \"intelligence\" in his co-authored book, \u003cem\u003eThe Bell Curve\u003c\/em\u003e; and most recently, technocrats who seem to see themselves as superior because they are closest to the machines destined to outstrip and supplant fallible flesh-and-blood humanity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe anti-egalitarian lineage Phillips-Fein traces is both clear and deeply unsettling. It challenges readers to think about the fragility of the ideal of equality and to reckon with the disturbing arguments of those who have campaigned against it over the past two and a half centuries. \u003cem\u003eCountry of Lords\u003c\/em\u003e is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the widening gap between the nation we claim to be and the nation we are becoming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/25\/2026 (EAN 9781324074441, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 07\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781324074441, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003ePhillips-Fein, Kim\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eKim Phillips-Fein\u003c\/strong\u003e is Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University. She is the author of \n\u003cem\u003eFear City\u003c\/em\u003e, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and \n\u003cem\u003eInvisible Hands\u003c\/em\u003e. She lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496210301206,"sku":"9781324074441","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781324074441.jpg?v=1783057620","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/country-of-lords-neo-aristocrats-social-darwinists-tech-utopians-and-the-long-fight-against-equality-in-america","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}