Book cover of As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West

Book description

How the rich and the super-rich throughout Western history accumulated their wealth, behaved (or misbehaved) and helped (or didn't help) their communities in times of crisis

The rich have always fascinated, sometimes in problematic ways. Medieval thinkers feared that the super-rich would act 'as gods among men'; much more recently…

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Why read it?

1 author picked As Gods Among Men as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Guido Alani’s book traces the history of rich people in the West from the Middle Ages to now. What I especially illuminating about this book was that as far back as the 14th century people were calling for rich people to be expelled from democratic societies because they held too much power.

Alfani confronts us with the reality that the rich pretend to be ‘gods among men’ as if they do not have to play by the same rules as the rest of us. But all is not lost. Alfani insists that the rich have a fragile position in society…

From Carl's list on dangers of billionaires.

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