{"product_id":"9780802161864","title":"Flight of the WASP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003eFifteen families.\nFour hundred years. The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in\nAmerica’s history. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph\nAlsop to the editors of \u003ci\u003ePolitico\u003c\/i\u003e have proclaimed the\ndiminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the\ndominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has,\nin the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the\nperiphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his\ncompelling chronicle.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom Colonial America’s founding settlements through\nthe Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their\nprofound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen\ninfluential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried\nfamilies. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and\nWhitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in\nthe four-century sweep of American history emerge: our wide, oft-contentious\nreligious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the\ncreation and sometime mis-use of astonishing economic and political power; an\nenduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with\nphilanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“American society was supposed to be different,”\nwrites Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an\naristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American\nnational experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as \u003ci\u003e740 Park\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRogues’\nGallery\u003c\/i\u003e, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the\ncanvas,\u003ci\u003e Flight of the WASP\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles it across four centuries\nand fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to\nAmerican history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Michael Gross","offers":[{"title":"Grove\/Atlantic |  Hardback | With dust jacket |  2023-11-24","offer_id":44230060835071,"sku":"9780802161864","price":44.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_de137d47-dbd6-47a3-8891-614cea714128.jpg?v=1692996752","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780802161864","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}