Winners take all : the elite charade of changing the world / Anand Giridharadas.
Publisher: London : Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2019Description: 288 pages.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780241400722.Subject(s): Social mobility | Elite (Social sciences) | Elite (Social sciences) -- Attitudes | Elite (Social sciences) -- Social conditions | Elite (Social sciences) -- Economic conditionsDDC classification: 305.52Item type | Current library | Class number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Book | House of Lords Library - Palace Dewey | 305.52 GIR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 016692 |
Prologue -- But how is the world changed? -- Win-win -- Rebel-kings in worrisome berets -- The critic and the thought leader -- Arsonists make the best firefighters -- Generosity and justice -- All that works in the modern world -- "Other people are not your children".
"The New York Times bestselling, groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite’s efforts to “change the world” preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. An essential read for understanding some of the egregious abuses of power that dominate today’s news.
Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can–except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; how they lavishly reward “thought leaders” who redefine “change” in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. We hear the limousine confessions of a celebrated foundation boss; witness an American president hem and haw about his plutocratic benefactors; and attend a cruise-ship conference where entrepreneurs celebrate their own self-interested magnanimity.
Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? He also points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world. A call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike." --
Penguin RandomHouse site.