Country of Lords
Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America
Will be published approx. on 21. July 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-324-07444-1 (ISBN)
Description
The story of American history is often told as a hard-won march toward the promise of equality, derived from Thomas Jefferson's famous proclamation that "all men are created equal."
But this inspiring story obscures a parallel tradition: an enduring and organized argument against equality itself. Again and again, influential Americans have asserted a fundamental inequality among human beings, arguing that the social, economic, and racial hierarchies in which some groups of people rule over others are not only natural but good.
In Country of Lords acclaimed historian Kim Phillips-Fein traces this argument for inequality through six vivid archetypes. She discusses the natural aristocrats, such as John Adams, who feared the tumult of too much democracy; the social Darwinists, led by Yale professor William Graham Sumner, who blamed the poor for their own miseries; those who preached a gospel of production, including Henry Ford, who wanted an industrial hierarchy in which the "best" people ruled over compliant inferiors; utilitarian racists who advocated for eugenics and a racial hierarchy; meritocrats like Harvard psychologist Richard Hernstein who described an economic caste system based on "intelligence" in his co-authored book, The Bell Curve; and most recently, technocrats who seem to see themselves as superior because they are closest to the machines destined to outstrip and supplant fallible flesh-and-blood humanity.
The anti-egalitarian lineage Phillips-Fein traces is both clear and deeply unsettling. It challenges readers to think about the fragility of the ideal of equality and to reckon with the disturbing arguments of those who have campaigned against it over the past two and a half centuries. Country of Lords is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the widening gap between the nation we claim to be and the nation we are becoming.
But this inspiring story obscures a parallel tradition: an enduring and organized argument against equality itself. Again and again, influential Americans have asserted a fundamental inequality among human beings, arguing that the social, economic, and racial hierarchies in which some groups of people rule over others are not only natural but good.
In Country of Lords acclaimed historian Kim Phillips-Fein traces this argument for inequality through six vivid archetypes. She discusses the natural aristocrats, such as John Adams, who feared the tumult of too much democracy; the social Darwinists, led by Yale professor William Graham Sumner, who blamed the poor for their own miseries; those who preached a gospel of production, including Henry Ford, who wanted an industrial hierarchy in which the "best" people ruled over compliant inferiors; utilitarian racists who advocated for eugenics and a racial hierarchy; meritocrats like Harvard psychologist Richard Hernstein who described an economic caste system based on "intelligence" in his co-authored book, The Bell Curve; and most recently, technocrats who seem to see themselves as superior because they are closest to the machines destined to outstrip and supplant fallible flesh-and-blood humanity.
The anti-egalitarian lineage Phillips-Fein traces is both clear and deeply unsettling. It challenges readers to think about the fragility of the ideal of equality and to reckon with the disturbing arguments of those who have campaigned against it over the past two and a half centuries. Country of Lords is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the widening gap between the nation we claim to be and the nation we are becoming.
Reviews / Votes
"Enlightening and shocking. The brilliant historian Kim Phillips-Fein delivers a necessary history of the scandalous but tenacious resistance to the emancipation Americans still need." -- Samuel Moyn, Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and author of The Last Utopia "An audacious argument that the American intellectual tradition is composed of not just egalitarian principles but also of many anti-democratic ones. With care and erudition, Country of Lords shows that the excesses of today's far right intelligentsia are far from new." -- Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped "With an artful pen and a breezy style, Kim Phillips-Fein takes the reader on a revealing tour of the ideas and people inhabiting a dark and under-recognized continuity in American history: those committed to values that are too often seen as "un-American" but whose thought and power we ignore at our peril. An eye-opening read." -- Jefferson Cowie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom's Dominion "Both timely and necessary, this book describes the evolution and persistence of anti-Enlightenment apologias for political and material inequality that today, more than ever, threaten core American values, morals, and democracy itself." -- David Nasaw, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Wounded Generation "Powerful, expansive, and penetrating, Country of Lords confounds our assumptions about America's political traditions and sensibilities. Reaching back to the world of the founders and far ahead to that of the tech titans, it demands a new type of reckoning." -- Steven Hahn, author of Illiberal America "With energy and thoughtful scholarship, Kim Phillips-Fein, one of our most gifted historians, explains why every generation has had to fight to keep the egalitarian hopes at the foundations of our republic alive." -- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics "Kim Philips-Fein has dug deep into US history and excavated a rogues gallery of men with bad, mad and even dangerous ideas. If you want to understand where we are today, this lively-and sobering-intellectual history will help." -- Dr. Anya Schiffrin, editor of Media Capture in the Digital Age "Striking... a rousing and worrisome counter-history of a uniquely American strain of anti-democratic political thought." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The Pulitzer finalist charts the long history of the American political conviction that all people are not created equal." -- Publishers Weekly, "Spring 2026 Preview: History Top Ten"More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
8 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
442 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-07444-1 (9781324074441)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification