The Power Elite

By: C. Wright Mills, Alan Wolfe - afterword

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

First published in 1956, The Power Elite stands as a contemporary classic of social science and social criticism. C. Wright Mills examines and critiques the organization of power in the United States, calling attention to three firmly interlocked prongs of power: the military, corporate, and political elite. The Power Elite can be enjoyed as a good account of what was taking place in America at the time it was written, but its underlying question of whether America is as democratic in practice as it is in theory continues to matter very much today.

What The Power Elite informed readers of in 1956 was how much the organization of power in America had changed during their lifetimes, and Alan Wolfe's astute afterword to this new edition brings us up to date, illustrating how much more has changed since then. Wolfe sorts out what is helpful in Mills' book and which of his predictions have not come to bear, laying out the radical changes in American capitalism, from intense global competition and the collapse of communism to rapid technological transformations and ever changing consumer tastes. The Power Elite has stimulated generations of readers to think about the kind of society they have and the kind of society they might want, and deserves to be enjoyed by every new generation.

©1956, 2000 Oxford University Press, Inc.; Afterword copyright 2000 by Alan Wolfe (P)2019 Tantor

The afterword written in the late 90s is as useless as the main work is important.

C. Wright Mills' work is an important read. The afterword has been proved to be useless in the following 24 years since it was written.

Must read, skip afterword

Must read for anyone interested in the US and its structures of power. Only negative is the Afterword is extremely dated, and really doesn't do justice to the original work and its importance.

C. Wright Mills does great, afterword is lacking

Great and profound insight. The afterword served little purpose in my opinion. I always find it frustrating when an old book receives a new afterword disputing the claims of dead men

Will listen to again.....

He saw the end coming.... and much of what he said is already here....

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Best analysis of America I ever read

When you combine this book with CS Lewis’s Abolition of Man and Hayak’s On the Road to Serfdom, you get a strong knowledge of the progression of technology and the economies of scale that hat led to the dominance of the few and the destruction of the individual and with that destruction of all morality.

Mills was right the only God on the world is money.

We are well down the road to destruction. Man is incapable of saving himself; we are led by idiot savants that have no conception of common good.

It would be better if we blew ourselves up and started over. We have destroyed the environment that allows people to be happy.

It is all very interesting and we are at the crest of a crashing wave.

Welcome to the Reality Under Your Nose

I recommend reading "Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon" by David McGowan along with this early expose of the rule by iron fist of what is now referred to as "the one percent." Your little pop music heroes and movie actors are all scions of elite families. But hey, believe in the dream! Anybody can be anything they want in this country. You just have to get in a real long line first. A "bloodline," at that!

Excellent book!!

Excellent book!! it took me 15 days, but I finished. I enjoyed every bit of it because it helped me understand how the world is being manipulated.

Nailed it!

I have never read a book so prescient (even if a bit dry). Everything Mills said in 1956 has come true, exactly as he predicted it would. As he saw it unfolding before his eyes. This is the amazing part. But, it is not why I am writing this review. What was even more amazing, is how clueless Alan Wolfe, who penned the afterword in 1999, turned out to be. His analysis was atrocious. As bad as it gets and grating to listen to.

According to Wolfe, when Mills stuck to the data, he was fine. But, the moment he veered off into social criticism, when he voiced his own opinions regarding the direction he saw the country heading in, the direction the military, the politicians, and most especially the power elites (read: inherited wealth) were heading in, Mills just completely lost his way. Wolfe pointed out how much of what Mills predicted hadn't come true. For instance, Mills predicted that the military budget would balloon beyond all proportions, that we would be stuck in endless wars, that political diatribe would devolve into little more than theatrical performance, that Republicans and Democrats would meld into a single indistinguishable party, that the power elites would let the government (and taxpayer) foot the bill for every financial gamble they took, that the power elites did not value their country, democracy, or anything that stood in the way of their making lots and lots of money, that an apathetic American citizenry would become so inured to these excesses that they would allow themselves to be distracted by fluff. What Wolfe should be asking in 2023, is there anything Mills missed? The answer would be, no, as there was a lot more I could have added, all of it spot on, I just ran out of space. C. Wright Mills was a visionary in the truest sense of that word. Wolfe, a well educated, probably well meaning professor, credentialed enough to write the afterword, not so much.

terrible

Society needs a hereditary transnational elite to controll our media, government, education, and corporations. The author seems to incorrectly believe the global oligarchy is bad. The globalists are needed to protect the weakest members of society from the injustice caused by racism. The global elite is constantly holding conferences on Caribbean paradises to discuss the dangers on inequality. Who is going to build section 8 housing unless it is the
well connected billionaire class.