Shay O’Brien

We are living in a new Gilded Age. A tiny sliver of the population gets richer and more powerful every day. Most of these billionaires and politicians want what elites have always wanted: to ensure their kids inherit their elite status.

Some will successfully entrench their families in the upper class, and some won’t.  In a new study, I ask how some elite families successfully entrench themselves in the upper class while others don’t. I argue that individual control over vast fortunes does not in and of itself guarantee elite heirs.  Upper-class entrenchment is a collaborative family project that cannot be reduced to wealth alone.