The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today [Hardcover]

Ferdinand Lundberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1968

Thirty years ago, a bombshell of a book appeared which told the story of the lords of wealth and their glittering clans. It was called America's Sixty Families. It rocked the nation and became a classic. Lundberg showed how America was ruled by a plutocracy of inherited wealth, even under the New Deal. At the time he could only provide a sampling of the economic and political patterns of those families, which, for one reason or another, had come under public scrutiny. In addition to the Sixty Families he dealt with in depth he was able to outline the probable holdings of a few hundred other families. Where are they today - those Sixty Families? What ravages of time, death and taxes worked on the mighty fortunes of yesteryear? Is the "Welfare State" robbing them of the opulence they knew in the good old days?... Lundberg shows that there are 200,000 very wealthy individuals in the United states. Most of them are of some 500 super-millionaire families. Examples are 250 Du Ponts, 73 Rockefellers. Some 61% of the 200,000 inherited their wealth. These families are far wealthier than ever before.... These families have all the old levers of power and pelf plus a whole host of new ones created for them during the intervening decades by the politicians, lawyers and judges who serve them. --- excerpts from book's dustjacket

Product Details

• Hardcover: 812 pages
• Publisher: Lyle Stuart; 1st edition (June 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0818400692
• ISBN-13: 978-0818400698
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Money is Power, April 15, 2003

By 

John Bonanno (Hiram, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today (Paperback)

Mr. Lundberg's deconstruction of the relationships of powerful families in the United States is fascinating reading. Power seeks power incestuously and the web of power isn't just wealth. It is boards of corporations, memberships in clubs, and the bonds of marriages. This isn't just a screed against money; it is an anthropological study of the rulers of this country. They seldom seek publicity. That would be so nouveau riche. Even though this is a snapshot taken in the middle of the last century, the social structures revealed had been established since the beginning of the Republic and there is no reason to doubt that they persist today. Read and learn.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars P L E A S E....R E P R I N T...T H I S...C L A S S I C..!, October 1, 2004

By 

Patricia "A Reader" (Queens, New York, and Denver, Co, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today (Hardcover)

Loaded with facts and figures, this gigantic book seems at first
intimidating -- but it is really quite easy to read and under-stand. Being able to "swallow" what's there is a different thing, however -- one is horrified to learn that our US Democracy isn't truly a democracy at all....that it's ruled by
a powerful ogliarcy that keeps its power -- and most of the identities of its members, truly secret.

Since this book was published in the 1960s, there is info
that is absent....but also some secret info that isn't in
more modern books, as the power elite have since covered some
of the tracks herein listed.

For me, the most valuable part of the book is the description of the "common (mass) man" vs. the elite. (See the wonderfully annotated index -- as the page numbers are different between the paperback and hard-cover.) The rich really ARE
different from you and I -- but Mr. Lundberg's reasonings why
are 1000 times more accurate, (and 1000 times more frightening),
than F. Scott Fitzgerald's! The reasons given make terrible,
logical sense -- and make one not only appreciate their accuracy,
but also appreciate, greatly, such "traitors to their class" as
Robert Kennedy and (to me, anyway), John Kerry -- people who,
despite their wealth, see "mass men", (and women), as nothing
more, (and nothing less), than fellow human-beings! It's too
bad there are not more of them!

Mr. Lundberg died a few years ago. I found this out
searching the New York Times database. I did not find his
obituary -- but I did find that of his wife, who died even
more recently. Sadly -- and tellingly -- hers was NOT a
"feature" obituary -- but one which, instead, had to be
inserted, (and paid for), by her family. Although it is
possible that Mrs. Lundberg preferred it this way -- wanting
to be one of the "mass" of humanity to the end, it is also
quite possible that the "powers that be" wanted to "bury"
the name of Lundberg, (and Ferdinand Lundberg's crusading
books!), as much as possible! As long as his books remain
buyable -- and especially if this wonderful classic is
someday soon reprinted -- I will know we haven't fallen into
a dictatorship, (yet!) I am glad that I bought a copy when
it first came out, and I am super-glad to have been able to
have bought a newish copy on Amazon! Lundberg -- and all
of us freedom-loving, knowlege-questing "Lundbergians",
live!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate reference for billionaires, April 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today (Paperback)

The more things change the more they stay the same. What we really need is for Ferdinand Lunberg to give us an up-to-date version. This book showed us where all the money was and how they kept it and controlled it. If you are a capitalist, you will want to read this and will want an updated version. Incredible new fortunes are being made today, but what happened to all the old money?