An insider's
groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to
"change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure
their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.
Former New York
Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums
of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality
and justice any way they can--except ways that threaten the social
order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves
as saviors of the poor; how they lavishly reward "thought
leaders" who redefine "change" in winner-friendly
ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less
harm. We hear the limousine confessions of a celebrated foundation
boss; witness an American president hem and haw about his plutocratic
benefactors; and attend a cruise-ship conference where entrepreneurs
celebrate their own self-interested magnanimity.
Giridharadas asks
hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be
solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public
institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? He also points
toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we
must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust,
egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world. A call to
action for elites and everyday citizens alike.