Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rich and the Super-Rich. New York: Bantam Books, 1969. 1009 pages.

Ferdinand Lundberg (1902-1995) began his career as a class-conscious critic of American democracy in the 1930s. This 1968 book was a best-seller, going through a dozen printings in just one year. It's basically a thousand- page, well-researched rant against the few hundred rich people who run the country, and rig the system so that they don't have to pay taxes. Almost all of the important wealth in America is inherited -- the myth that anyone can make it is designed to keep people stupid, and too busy to complain.

Lundberg's level of detail is impressive, and he could have easily continued for another thousand pages. The most valuable chapters are those that describe the American tax system. Philanthropic foundations were set up by and for rich people as thinly-disguised holding companies, to keep wealth and power inside the family, and keep the tax man at bay. Lundberg's account of the 1962 Wright Patman investigation into foundations is quite thorough; moreover, it's the only one we've seen. This book frequently mentions people like the the DuPonts, the Fords, and the Rockefellers; Lundberg also wrote "The Rockefeller Syndrome" in 1976. If he were still with us, and able to watch the creeping globalization being forced on us by wealthy elites, Lundberg would be one of the few American commentators qualified to say, "I told you so."
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