Publishers Weekly
09/04/2023
Historian Gross (740 Park) delivers an immersive and nuanced group portrait of New England’s elite from 1609 to today. Delving into the genealogy of 15 prominent white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant families, Gross describes how over time this old ruling class “has drifted from American centrality to the periphery.” In addition to providing succinct assessments of well-known names like Morgan, Biddle, Peabody, and Whitney, Gross spotlights William Bradford, a Yorkshire-born shepherd and religious dissident who became the first Pilgrim mayor of Plymouth, Mass. According to Gross, Bradford was the first progenitor of an elite American line: his illustrious descendants include Noah Webster, Hugh Hefner, Julia Child, and Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Gross notes a decline in the influence of these families after “patrician” class-traitor FDR effectively redistributed their wealth through the New Deal; and, while WASP families “tightened their hold on the reins of government again via institutions they created or controlled” under President Kennedy, by the time of (elite New Englander) George H. W. Bush’s death in 2018, they “seemed entirely irrelevant.” Gross takes detours into extended considerations of areas in which his subjects had a hand, such as the displacement of Indigenous peoples and the study of eugenics. Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate thumbnails, this is an enlightening study of American culture. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Flight of the WASP:
“Illuminating . . . It is the virtue of his book that it brings the now defunct patricians to life in all their doubleness, begetters of American prosperities who drove themselves crazy trying to heal American hysterics.”—Michael Knox Beran, Air Mail
“A formal, sincere and rather crowded portrait gallery of about a dozen significant Old Names—Biddles, Peabodys, Whitneys, et al.—that sternly accounts for their evil deeds while also tabulating their noble ones.”—Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
“Delightfully provocative . . . The book’s real delight lies in its brisk biographies of the people who illustrate the ascent and descent of WASP hegemony . . . Well-researched and well-written, Gross’ portrait gallery will, if nothing else, illuminate the odd corners of the lives of our nation’s elite and American history itself.”—BookPage (starred review)
“A thoughtful deep dive into the history of the country and who has wielded power here, but is kept lively thanks to Gross’s ability to spin yarns that make even the Pilgrims feel exciting.”—Town & Country
“An immersive and nuanced group portrait of New England’s elite from 1609 to today . . . Gross takes detours into extended considerations of areas in which his subjects had a hand, such as the displacement of Indigenous peoples and the study of eugenics. Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate thumbnails, this is an enlightening study of American culture.”—Publishers Weekly
“A critical history of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant cohort of American society, once dominant, now descending . . . Readable and engaging.”—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Michael Gross:
“Does not skimp on the gossipy goods. There are descents into madness, prolific drug use, orgies, blackmail photos and suicide attempts . . . Also smart, well-researched and written with an insider’s eye . . . Engaging and on point.”—New York Times Book Review, on Focus
“A delicious read. Sweeping . . . Thoughtful.”—Daily Beast, on Focus
“I thought I knew practically everything about the fashion industry, but Michael Gross has corrected me. His thoroughly absorbing narrative dazzles with the most profound investigation and research. Focus is an enthralling and riveting read!”—Tim Gunn
“Michael Gross . . . rules[s] the school of literature you might call Books About Buildings Where Lots of Rich People Live.”—Vanity Fair, on House of Outrageous Fortune
“[Tom] Wolfe’s gift was in summing up an era through his description of [Sherman] McCoy and his environs. Michael Gross has done likewise by taking us inside the most expensive, most powerful address in the world . . . Stunning.”—CNN, on House of Outrageous Fortune
“Michael Gross, an author with a delicate appreciation for bloated egos and wealth, makes them glitter in House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address. The intersecting strands of money, politics, greed, taste, ambition shine brightly.”—Bloomberg News
“Compulsively readable.”—Liesl Schillinger, New York Times, on 740 Park
“A blockbuster exhibition of human achievement and flaws.”—New York Times Book Review, on Rogues’ Gallery
“Gross demonstrates he knows his stuff. It’s a terrific tale . . . Gossipy, color-rich, fact-packed . . . What Gross reveals is stuff that more people should know.”—USA Today, on Rogues’ Gallery
“Michael Gross has proven once again that he is a premier chronicler of the rich. Rogues’ Gallery is an insightful, entertaining look at a great institution-with all its flaws and all its greatness.”—Gay Talese
“One long, scurrilously detailed dish. The first comprehensive history of modeling and a chewy read.”—Harper’s Bazaar, on Model
“Gossipy, bitchy and probably seminal. Gross pulls no punches. Model is a litany of skullduggery and dirty dealings.”—San Francisco Examiner
Kirkus Reviews
2023-09-01
A critical history of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant cohort of American society, once dominant, now descending.
The first people to purchase enslaved Africans in Virginia were WASPs, but they were also among the first to launch coordinated abolitionist efforts. That diametrical division indicates that WASP society was not monolithic. Regardless, WASPs constituted “America’s elite from the eighteenth century until today,” writes Gross, author of Model and 740 Park. That elite remains economically powerful but culturally marginal. The author explains that its decline might be traced to the emergence of John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, as president—though, he adds, Kennedy was culturally aligned with WASPs and served as “a symbol of how an inclusive aristocracy replenishes itself, absorbing and even embracing those willing to learn and adapt to its ways.” That aristocracy was insular and to some extent inbred, though extraordinarily prolific: Were he alive to do so, a patriarch of the Bradford clan would have counted 11,272 descendants in just six generations, including Adlai Stevenson, Julia Child, Hugh Hefner, and Clint Eastwood. One thing is for certain: The American variety of Protestantism, whether “old school” or fundamentalist, proves Max Weber’s linking of the Protestant ethic to a kind of “hard frugality” capitalism that in many important respects all but replaced religion with business. Interestingly, as Gross writes, politics was long considered beneath the elite, but the crusading Theodore Roosevelt in particular made public service seem attractive to many. In conclusion, the author notes, whereas many WASPs have since retreated to “posh suburbs, restrictive clubs, elite charities, and the powerful financial sinecures that still cocooned them,” others are aligning themselves with a new America that many believe will become minority white by 2045.
A book of pop history and sociology that runs wide but not terribly deep, though readable and engaging all the same.
