Summary of Lewis H. Lapham's Money and Class in America

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 George Amory, the man I preferred to call, was heir to a large Long Island fortune. He was a tennis player and a blond and handsome insouciant elegance embodied in a tailor’s window. He had three children, but his wife was without substantial means of her own, and they couldn’t afford to live comfortably.
#2 Amory’s story is a prime example of the pathologies of wealth. He was born into the ranks of the equestrian class and educated to the protocols of wealth at prep school and college. He couldn’t afford to raise his children like his parents had done for him, and his feeling of failure showed in his eyes.
#3 I grew up in San Francisco, which was a city known for its romantic image of itself. The citizens doted on a romantic image of themselves, and they lacked any sense of other voices in other parts of town.
#4 The point of view that the world is an entertainment for the rich assumes that Australians will play tennis, that Italians will sing or kill one another in Brooklyn, that blacks will dance or riot, and that holders of a season subscription will live happily ever after.

Sujets

• Histoire
• 21st Century
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822527034
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Lewis H. Lapham's Money and Class in America
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

George Amory, the man I preferred to call, was heir to a large Long Island fortune. He was a tennis player and a blond and handsome insouciant elegance embodied in a tailor’s window. He had three children, but his wife was without substantial means of her own, and they couldn’t afford to live comfortably.

#2

Amory’s story is a prime example of the pathologies of wealth. He was born into the ranks of the equestrian class and educated to the protocols of wealth at prep school and college. He couldn’t afford to raise his children like his parents had done for him, and his feeling of failure showed in his eyes.

#3

I grew up in San Francisco, which was a city known for its romantic image of itself. The citizens doted on a romantic image of themselves, and they lacked any sense of other voices in other parts of town.

#4

The point of view that the world is an entertainment for the rich assumes that Australians will play tennis, that Italians will sing or kill one another in Brooklyn, that blacks will dance or riot, and that holders of a season subscription will live happily ever after.

#5

The prep school I attended in 1948 was not concerned with teaching me anything beyond the basics. It was a necessary ornament, but not the equal of a good shotgun or a trust fund yielding $300,000 a year. The students and faculty assumed that the mere fact of being present validated their admission to the ranks of the best people.

#6

At Hotchkiss, the guarantee of privilege was extended to everyone, even to the molelike grinds who hoped only to serve the system. Nobody questioned the legitimacy of the regime, and nobody could imagine an alternative hierarchy of ideas.

#7

The education offered at Yale, Harvard, and other universities is similar to the commercial procedure for stunting caterpillars prior to their moment of transformation into butterflies. Silkworms can be made useful, but butterflies do nothing to add to the profits of the corporation or the power of the state.

#8

The debate about the humanities has been going on for at least thirty years, and it has become more abstract as the meaning of the words humanities and meaning steadily lose meaning. The study of the liberal arts is one of those appearances that must be kept up.

#9

The American society was built on the belief that they were the heirs of the classical and Christian past, as well as the earth and all of its creation. As they became increasingly profligate, so did their presumptions of entitlement.

#10

The pathologies of wealth typically affect the heirs of fortunes, not the founders. But in the United States, the country has developed a rentier class of sizeable proportions.

#11

The complaint of the rich is that they are poor, and they don’t want to be seen with dresses or diamond earrings that cost $15,000 or more. The complaint of the poor is that they are rich, and they don’t want to be seen with anything less than $15,000 dresses or diamond earrings.

#12

The emphasis on the external finish of life extends across all social classes and explains much of the spending in the public and private sectors. It is a fundamental part of the American culture that people spend a large percentage of their income on the preservation of illusions.

#13

In America, money is associated with freedom. But for many Americans, money simply means being able to do whatever you want, and they believe that if they had twice as much money, they would be able to unlock the vault of paradise.

#14

The American dream is always about more, and the Americans never seem to have enough. They seek the invisible through the imagery of the visible, and they never get to the end of the American dream.

#15

The children of the rich often have a similar state of deprivation. They have the resources to travel, underwrite the acts of the imagination, and make the acquaintance of their own minds. Instead, they fix their attention on the tiny distinctions between shirts bought at Tripler’s and shirts bought at J. Press.

#16

The masks of opulence that are present in many wealthy societies conceal a truly terrifying listlessness of spirit. The equestrian classes in New York promenade through the mirrored galleries of the media, their least movements accompanied by a ceaseless murmuring of praise in the fashion magazines and The New York Times.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The history of the United States is synonymous with the dream of riches. The first European explorers came looking for gold and the silk routes to the Indies, and the founders of the American republic could not conceive of human rights being established on anything other than property.

#2

The American Constitution did not set a fee for admission to the polls, but many state constitutions required the voters in local elections to own property. The delegates to the Constitution Convention feared what they called the turbulent passions of the common man, and they detested both the theory and the practice of democracy.

#3

The American government from the very beginning has been involved w