David N. Gibbs's "Revolt of the Rich"

David N. Gibbs is professor of history at the University of Arizona, with a courtesy appointment in Africana studies. His books include First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (2009).

Gibbs applied the "Page 99 Test" to his new book, Revolt of the Rich: How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America's Class Divide, and reported the following:

Revolt of the Rich starts from the fact that inequality of wealth and income in the United States has increased exponentially during the past four decades, beginning in the late 1970s, as documented by the French economist Thomas Piketty. My book seeks to answer the question of why inequality increased. The answer, based on fifteen years of archival research, is that there was a massive influence campaign by business interests and wealthy individuals that sought to direct a greater share of resources to themselves, at the expense of the majority. Business interests set aside their differences and combined forces, acting with great discipline. In essence, this influence campaign was successful, thus transforming US politics in a plutocratic direction that endures to this day.

Page 99 would not be a good place to gain an understanding of my overall argument about wealth inequality. It addresses a secondary theme, which is: How was it possible to achieve such inegalitarian policies – that were harmful to the majority -- in a Democratic political system? Page 99 addresses this question by looking at how weak the leftist opposition was. During the 1970s, the left lost its traditional focus on the working class and instead directed its appeals to the highly educated. I note how left culture increasingly disparaged working-class males – especially white males – as ignorant, violent, and racist, thus introducing a basic wedge issue into American politics. The elitist character of the left greatly reduced its effectiveness, which ensured that the business led lobby groups met little opposition. The focus on the educated also opened the left to accusations from right-wing politicians that it had become a snob left – an accusation that contained an element of truth.

Learn more about Revolt of the Rich at Columbia University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue