Fifteen families.
Four hundred years. The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in
America’s history.
For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph
Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the
diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the
dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has,
in the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the
periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his
compelling chronicle.
From Colonial America’s founding settlements through
the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their
profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen
influential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried
families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and
Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in
the four-century sweep of American history emerge: our wide, oft-contentious
religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the
creation and sometime mis-use of astonishing economic and political power; an
enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with
philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior.
“American society was supposed to be different,”
writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an
aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American
national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’
Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the
canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries
and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to
American history.
"Fifteen families. Four hundred years. The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in America's history. For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle of the WASPs in our history. From Colonial America's founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complicated legacy of American WASPs-their profound accomplishments and egregious failures-through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody, and Whitney clans, among others, progress, prosper, and stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history emerge: our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometime misuse of astonishing economic, political, and social power; an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior. "American society was supposed to be different," writes Gross, "but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American national experiment." In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues' Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history"--
