Domhoff, G.William. The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America. New York: Vintage Books, 1971. 367 pages.

While most American sociologists spend their time writing about social stratification and delinquent behavior, there are a handful of scholars who deal seriously with upper-class social and economic power as a phenomenon of contemporary American politics. University of California at Santa Cruz professor G.William Domhoff is one of the more prominent.

Higher Circles makes a convincing case that elites run foreign policy and shape social legislation through various devices from think tanks to interlocking directorates, while the CIA molds the public consciousness by financing institutions, infiltrating labor unions, and buying opinion- makers. The book is name-intensive and full of concrete examples and statistics. The final chapter presents a solid critique of the pluralists -- the academic mandarins whose job it was to justify the status quo during the 1960s. Twenty years later, when it became their job to justify increasing poverty and homelessness, they gave up on pluralism and started debating "trickle-down" economics. Meanwhile, professors got tenure and the rich got richer.
ISBN 0-394-71671-X

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page