Dynastic America and Those Who Own It

The Federal Constitution is intended to preserve free institutions in the United States. It was amended for Prohibition and Woman Suffrage. Why not amend it to limit excessive private fortunes? The Sherman anti-trust law has failed to check extortion by private monopoly. Why not check the greed of those who control private monopoly? -from Dynastic America The early 20th-century equivalent of today's aggressive and opinionated political bloggers, Henry Klein wrote a series of searing diatribes against what he perceived as the civic and social injustices of his day. Here, Klein decries the "invisible government" of "great wealth," the legacy of the Gilded Age that showed no sign of giving up its privileged position in the post-World War I period. This book, first published in 1921, combines Klein's enraged commentary with the irrefutable facts of the concentration of wealth in America. His lists of who possessed stunning amounts of wealth are staggering-Andrew Carnegie was worth $300 million; William Waldorf Astor, $200 million-but they are nothing to the unimaginable billions today's richest command. As both historical document and cautionary warning in today's highly divisive economy, this is a fascinating book. HENRY H. KLEIN also wrote Standard Oil or the People (1914) and Bankrupting a Great City (1915).