Table of Contents:
  • part 1. The great waves of American wealth
  • 1. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries : from privateersmen to robber barons
  • 2. Serious money : the three twentieth-century wealth explosions
  • 3. Millennial plutographics : American fortunes and misfortunes at the turn of the century
  • part 2. The origins, evolutions, and engines of wealth : government, global leadership, and technology
  • 4. The world is our oyster : the transformation of leading world economic powers
  • 5. Friends in high places : government, political influence, and wealth
  • 6. Technology and the uncertain foundations of Anglo-American wealth
  • part 3. Wealth and democracy : the rhythm of politics and confrontation
  • 7. Wealth and politics in the United States
  • 8. Wealth, money-culture ethics, and corruption
  • 9. The cup always runneth over : greed, speculative bubbles, and reform
  • 10. Great economic power decline and the politics of resentment
  • part 4. Thinking ahead
  • Afterword : wealth and democracy : the United States and the new century.