Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, by Paul Fussell, Summit Books, 1983. The only true detailed examination of the American class system. This is one of many texts that should be required reading in high school, as it not only points out the similarities between the top and bottom-out-of-sights but also the absurdity of the entire class structure and the fallacies upon which it is built. According to The New York Times, “shrewd ”and “frighteningly acute”.
Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, by Robert Frank, Crown, 2007. An evenhanded journalistic travelogue into the world the other 0.05% lives in. A good read that shows just how far from the rest of us the wealthy really are.
The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide, by Richard Conniff, W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. An insightful and absolutely hilarious behavioral comparison of the sub-species of homo sapiens known as the wealthy (homo sapiens peconiosus) with various animal species including birds and primates.
Theory of the Leisure Class, by Thorstein Veblen, 1899. Establishing the original concept of conspicuous consumption, Veblen's classic guide to the behavior of the wealthy is the penultimate reference for all who have followed. Still fresh and accurate a century later.
The Nanny Diaries: A Novel, by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, St. Martin's, 2003. The reason that nannies now have contracts with non-disclosure clauses. A gaggingly delicious inside view of the lifestyle and behavior of an entirely overloaded New York City couple.
The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, 1911 (republished Bloomsbury, 2003). Critical social commentary in the form of a collection of cynical definitions that Bierce published from 1881 to 1886 in the Wasp, a weekly journal in San Francisco, and the model on which The Hamptons Dictionary is based. While Bierce didn't create neologisms, he redefined existing words to have a far more critical and often accurate meaning. The Devil's Dictionary shows that the concept and practice of spin, though uncoined, was alive and well a full century ago.
Wealth Addiction, by Philip Slater, E. P. Dutton, 1980. By defining the all-consuming quest for riches as a disease, Slater puts a timely twist on values in the age of globalization. He also broaches the idea that accumulation of wealth is an evolutionary adaptation to a domesticated society in which hunting, agriculture and other direct living skills have been rendered obsolete.
The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris, McGraw-Hill, 1967. No matter how high we aspire, the truth is that we are simply primates that have gone down a slightly different evolutionary branch. Morris, a zoologist and former curator of the London Zoo, points out how closely related we remain to our genetic ancestors, who often seem downright civilized in comparison to their more highly evolved cousins.
The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987. Self-interest reigns supreme in this fictional tale of a self-appointed master of the universe's fall from grace. Also the basis for an utterly vapid movie of the same name with Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis.
The End Of The Hamptons: Scenes From The Class Struggle In America's Paradise, by Corey Dolgon, New York University Press, 2005. A sociologist's dry overview of the Hamptons melting pot from robber barons to the illegal immigrants who grease the wheels of progress.