Who Rules America?

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Who Rules America?
Who Rules America.jpg
Cover of first edition
Author G. William Domhoff, Ph.D.
CountryUnited States
PublisherPrentice-Hall
Publication date
1967
Pages288 pp
OCLC 256506
Followed byWho Rules America Now? (1983)
Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the Year 2000 (1998)
Who Rules America? Power and Politics (2002)
Who Rules America? Power, Politics, & Social Change (2006)
Who Rules America? Challenges to Corporate and Class Dominance (2010)
Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich (2014)
Who Rules America? The Corporate Rich, White Nationalist Republicans, and Inclusionary Democrats in the 2020s (2022) 

Who Rules America? is a book by research psychologist and sociologist G. William Domhoff, Ph.D., published in 1967 as a best-seller (#12).

Contents

WRA is frequently assigned as a sociology textbook, documenting the dangerous concentration of power and wealth in the American upper class. [1] More recent editions have brought the discussion up to date, including the rise of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and the trend toward nationalism in the Republican Party. [2]

Summary

Domhoff argues in the book(s) that a power elite wields power in America transparently through its support of think-tanks, foundations, commissions, and academic departments. [3] Additionally, he argues that the elite controls institutions through overt authority, not through covert influence. [4]

In his introduction, Domhoff writes that the book was inspired by the work of four previous researchers: sociologists E. Digby Baltzell, C. Wright Mills, economist Paul Sweezy, and political scientist Robert A. Dahl. [5]

The University of California, Santa Cruz hosts Domhoff's Who Rules America? web site. [6]

Publication history

The original edition was followed by seven subsequent editions: [7]

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References

  1. "WhoRulesAmerica.net".
  2. "Who Rules America? (8th edition): The Corporate Rich, White Nationalist Republicans, and Inclusionary Democrats in the 2020s".
  3. World of Sociology. Gale. November 2000. ISBN   978-0-7876-4965-4.
  4. Miller, Kenneth E. (1967). "Who Rules America? by G. William Domhoff". Journal of Politics . 31: 565–567. doi:10.2307/2128630. JSTOR   2128630.
  5. Domhoff, G. William (1976). Who Rules America? p. 1. ISBN   0139583637.
  6. "Who Rules America?" whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu.
  7. "Studying the Power Elite: Fifty Years of Who Rules America?" (2017). Routledge.