Superclass
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Superclass

The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

David Rothkopf
FSG, 2008
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8

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Conspiracy theories thrive on mystery, and no group is more mysterious than the planet’s richest, most powerful people. Former U.S. Undersecretary of State David Rothkopf attempts to shed light on these shadowy figures using his experience with – and his detailed research into – their feeding habits and environments. Rothkopf deftly intersperses firsthand knowledge with hard data in describing the clout, backgrounds and goals of the people he identifies as the “superclass.” The result is a thorough examination of the 6,000 members of the global elite, their sources of power and the staggering amounts of money they control. The book comes alive in its behind-the-scenes tales of how these movers and shakers really roll. Rothkopf coyly demurs from listing them, while name-dropping plenty – but he sometimes bogs down in theory and conjecture. getAbstract suggests this who’s who of the rich and famous to those seeking a glimpse of how the superclass runs the world.

Summary

Gathering in Davos

Every year, 2,000 of the world’s most influential business leaders, government officials, cultural figures and media barons meet in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. Since 1971, acknowledged leaders from many fields have descended on Davos to conduct business and attend presentations in a wintry social setting. These worldly citizens – a cross section of the planet’s “superclass” – share a vision extending beyond national boundaries into the global realm.

In 1956, in a book titled The Power Elite, Columbia University professor C. Wright Mills noted the growing phenomenon of power being concentrated among elite people. Mills identified a group of “deciders” in American corporations, politics and military life, people who shaped policies in business, government and national security. In 1957, in an event that marked an evolution in the consolidation of postwar power, the Treaty of Rome first outlined a European Common Market. The signatory nations’ goal was to fend off war and thwart communism.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower acknowledged this consolidation of power in a 1961 speech warning of a “military-industrial complex...

About the Author

David Rothkopf wrote Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council, among other publications. He heads an international advisory firm and is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of commerce for international trade policy and past managing director of Kissinger Associates.

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