"Between 1920 and 1950 America saw an unprecedented expansion of wealth and power underwritten by technological innovation, cultural confidence, and victory in war. American elites won World War II, rebuilt the world order with America at its head, inaugurated the jet age and put a man on the moon. The boom led to a larger, richer middle that confirmed America's best ideals. By the early 1970s that ended. Since then, American elites have captured...

Grandma Hattie Mae's family is poor and struggling to save her home. The Willis family is filthy rich. When Hattie's daughter, Rose, and son-in-law, Frank, go to work at the Willis estate, it appears as if their financial worries are over. But when Mrs. Willis tries to buy Frank's affections, both families learn that choices often come with a price.

"A landmark work of intimate reporting on inequality, race, class, and violence, told through a murder and intersecting lives in an iconic American neighborhood. One New Haven summer evening in 2006, a retired grandfather was shot point-blank by a young stranger. A hasty police investigation culminated in innocent sixteen-year-old Bobby being sentenced to prison for thirty-eight years. New Haven native and acclaimed author Nicholas Dawidoff returned...

"Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Genesis of White Power and Wealth tells the story of how Black lives and labor created White power and wealth in agriculture, politics, jurisprudence, law enforcement, culture, medicine, financial services, and other fields. Through the lives of individual Black men and women a deeper understanding unravels of the role Blacks played, directly and indirectly, in creating American institutions of power and wealth-while...

Nestled in New York's Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages--and all of it for free. In fact, you're paid big money to stay here--more than you've ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds; your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. Jane, an immigrant...

Democracies should protect their citizens, especially the most vulnerable among them, but the United States is increasingly failing to do so. This investigative documentary shows how corporations and billionaires have taken control of the American political process and in doing so have brought economic hardship and ruin. It combines insights from political thinkers and journalists with the experiences of citizens where factory closures and outsourcing...

The drama, expansion, mansions and wealth of New York City's transformative Gilded Age era, from 1870 to 1910, captured in a magnificently illustrated hardcover. In forty short years, New York City suddenly became a city of skyscrapers, subways, streetlights, and Central Park, as well as sprawling bridges that connected the once-distant boroughs. In Manhattan, more than a million poor immigrants crammed into tenements, while the half of the millionaires...

Examines economics professor and Clinton Administration cabinet member Robert Reich's crusade to expose the problem of income inequality in the United States.