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Flight of the WASP: The Rise, Fall, and Future of America’s Original Ruling Class
Fifteen families.Four hundred years. The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in America’s history.
For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle.
From Colonial America’s founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometime mis-use of astonishing economic and political power; an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior.
“American society was supposed to be different,” writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’ Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history.
For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle.
From Colonial America’s founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged, sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometime mis-use of astonishing economic and political power; an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behavior.
“American society was supposed to be different,” writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, who initiated the American national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’ Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in microcosm; expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history.
480 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 14, 2023
118 people are currently reading
889 people want to read
About the author
Michael Gross
137 books19 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 4, 2024
Too bad. Gross’ approach is to tell the individual and family histories of several interesting WASP and WASP- adjacent families, with a view to giving an overarching sense of the WASP contribution. To his credit, the history covers both the better and the worse. This in itself is refreshing.
However, the result is not a success. The individual and family stories do not coalesce into a cultural history. They simply get bogged down in endless uninteresting and irrelevant detail. There’s no actual theme, there’s no evidence that these disparate and almost haphazard stories add up to any kind of organizing principle, nor that the incidents of the lives of the families involved had any more impact on American life than that of any similar families selected at random.
It’s a great bunch of material but it just doesn’t go anywhere. Interesting topic, great title, but not the book we need.
However, the result is not a success. The individual and family stories do not coalesce into a cultural history. They simply get bogged down in endless uninteresting and irrelevant detail. There’s no actual theme, there’s no evidence that these disparate and almost haphazard stories add up to any kind of organizing principle, nor that the incidents of the lives of the families involved had any more impact on American life than that of any similar families selected at random.
It’s a great bunch of material but it just doesn’t go anywhere. Interesting topic, great title, but not the book we need.
November 27, 2024
If you’re just looking for a refresher on American social and political history, this book would be a fine way to get it, but it misses the mark on what it purports to be, which is a contextual history of why the ruling class in America rose and fell.
There just isn’t a lot of “why” here at all, as it’s mostly a biographical account of prominent American families. If you’re reasonably well informed on major American historical figures, you already know a lot about most of them and probably have some knowledge of the rest.
Because the book never really even tries to make any kind of sociological point about the role of these people or why they rose to prominence and later faded largely into irrelevance, it’s a very dry read devoid of any real observation.
It’s a shame because Gross is clearly a good researcher and is likely more than capable of writing the book that this one claimed to be. But the proverbial devil is in the details here, and there are far too many of them included here without being attached to any greater meaning to give the narrative much purpose beyond being a sort of DeBrett’s of American wealth.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
There just isn’t a lot of “why” here at all, as it’s mostly a biographical account of prominent American families. If you’re reasonably well informed on major American historical figures, you already know a lot about most of them and probably have some knowledge of the rest.
Because the book never really even tries to make any kind of sociological point about the role of these people or why they rose to prominence and later faded largely into irrelevance, it’s a very dry read devoid of any real observation.
It’s a shame because Gross is clearly a good researcher and is likely more than capable of writing the book that this one claimed to be. But the proverbial devil is in the details here, and there are far too many of them included here without being attached to any greater meaning to give the narrative much purpose beyond being a sort of DeBrett’s of American wealth.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
July 16, 2023
In the late twentieth century much was made of the power and influence of the WASP in America: the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Some were the first white settlers in the United States; many descended from them. A few had gained significant prestige, power, and wealth through various means. The author seeks to tell the story of the trajectory of the WASP through a series of characters from Plimouth Plantation to the present day.
The main characters are William Bradford, Gouvernour Morris, John Randolph of Roanoke, Lewis Cass, Nicholas Biddle, Henry Shelton Sanford, the Peabodies, the Rutherfurds, the Whitneys, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Michael Butler. The author well weaves the tale of such people: how they succeeded, how they failed, what motivated them, and not only how they would be remembered, but how their descendants would maintain a type of aristocratic standing in American society and all that represented.
From this work one can perceive the tight-knit community of highly influential people in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, a group which seems almost incestuous at times, and one can see how they maintain their influence and privilege through their connections, education, marriages, and job opportunities. Furthermore, one can perceive how many had some decently healthy conception of reality, but how many others seemed entirely subsumed within their bubble.
The concluding chapter informs us of the fate of the descendants of our main characters and offers what I felt to be the unearned conclusion of how there is a lot of nobility in the aspirations of the WASP and we in American society are worse off by not having them. It is not as if such a case could not be made; but a lot of what is set forth in the narrative would equally demonstrate how it was important and good to break the WASP aristocracy. The author has done excellent research and has told compelling stories, but the author did not put in the analytical work which would justify his conclusion.
Still a fascinating read.
The main characters are William Bradford, Gouvernour Morris, John Randolph of Roanoke, Lewis Cass, Nicholas Biddle, Henry Shelton Sanford, the Peabodies, the Rutherfurds, the Whitneys, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Michael Butler. The author well weaves the tale of such people: how they succeeded, how they failed, what motivated them, and not only how they would be remembered, but how their descendants would maintain a type of aristocratic standing in American society and all that represented.
From this work one can perceive the tight-knit community of highly influential people in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, a group which seems almost incestuous at times, and one can see how they maintain their influence and privilege through their connections, education, marriages, and job opportunities. Furthermore, one can perceive how many had some decently healthy conception of reality, but how many others seemed entirely subsumed within their bubble.
The concluding chapter informs us of the fate of the descendants of our main characters and offers what I felt to be the unearned conclusion of how there is a lot of nobility in the aspirations of the WASP and we in American society are worse off by not having them. It is not as if such a case could not be made; but a lot of what is set forth in the narrative would equally demonstrate how it was important and good to break the WASP aristocracy. The author has done excellent research and has told compelling stories, but the author did not put in the analytical work which would justify his conclusion.
Still a fascinating read.
March 19, 2024
In “Flight of the WASP” Gross centres in the legacy of the original elite and how these families redefined what a WASP is.
As the book remains a thought-provoking exploration of a key part of American history and culture, Gross also raises important questions about the nature of power and privilege in American society.
Overall, "Flight of the WASP" offers a fascinating look at the rise, fall, and potential future of America's original ruling class. It is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in understanding the cultural and social forces that have shaped American society over the past century.
As the book remains a thought-provoking exploration of a key part of American history and culture, Gross also raises important questions about the nature of power and privilege in American society.
Overall, "Flight of the WASP" offers a fascinating look at the rise, fall, and potential future of America's original ruling class. It is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in understanding the cultural and social forces that have shaped American society over the past century.
March 10, 2024
I saw this on a recommended book list and decided to give it a go. Premise looked very interesting, but the title is incredibly misleading. More of a collection of biographies of seemingly unrelated people throughout American history who just happen to share ancestry. My one star is for the chapter on the late 19th century as I am a fan of the show Gilded Age.
May 18, 2023
Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
*******************************************************
Fifteen families.
Four hundred years.
The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in America’s history.
For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half-century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle.
From Colonial America’s founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometimes misuse of astonishing economic and political power; and an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behaviour.
“American society was supposed to be different,” writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, that initiated the American national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’ Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in a microcosm: expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history.
My ex used to sneer at me and call me an elitist WASP (I wasn't --- gasp --- Polish or Roman Catholic!) there is nothing wrong with being a WASP unless you are an absolute snob, use it to be an "influencer/content creator" or use it as a weapon of oppression These are names that even this Canadian has heard of and no one and I mean NO ONE but Michael Gross should have written this book as he is the master of skewering people.
Think Mayflower Madame and you know how deep the WASP culture in the USA runs (am I showing my age by that reference??? how about Waldorf or Astor(ia)? Boston Brahmins?) and how it still reverberates today. The book was FASCINATING, and I doubt that there is a book club I will not recommend it to, and I can also think of dozens of patrons who would enjoy this book as much as I did. It is a long book but not a hard book to read - I was surprised at how easily it flowed and how quickly even I (the ultimate speed reader) got through it.
HIGHLY recommended...what an impressive book! #shortbutsweetreviews
*******************************************************
Fifteen families.
Four hundred years.
The complex saga of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite in America’s history.
For decades, writers from Cleveland Amory to Joseph Alsop to the editors of Politico have proclaimed the diminishment of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who for generations were the dominant socio-cultural-political force in America. While the WASP elite has, in the last half-century, indeed drifted from American centrality to the periphery, its relevance and impact remain, as Michael Gross reveals in his compelling chronicle.
From Colonial America’s founding settlements through the Gilded Age to the present day, Gross traces the complex legacy of American WASPs—their profound accomplishments and egregious failures—through the lives of fifteen influential individuals and their very privileged sometimes intermarried families. As the Bradford, Randolph, Morris, Biddle, Sanford, Peabody and Whitney clans progress, prosper and periodically stumble, defining aspects in the four-century sweep of American history our wide, oft-contentious religious diversity; the deep scars of slavery, genocide, and intolerance; the creation and sometimes misuse of astonishing economic and political power; and an enduring belief in the future; an instinct to offset inequity with philanthropy; an equal capacity for irresponsible, sometimes wanton, behaviour.
“American society was supposed to be different,” writes Gross, “but for most of our history we have had a patriciate, an aristocracy, a hereditary oligarchic upper class, that initiated the American national experiment.” In previous acclaimed books such as 740 Park and Rogues’ Gallery, Gross has explored elite culture in a microcosm: expanding the canvas, Flight of the WASP chronicles it across four centuries and fifteen generations in an ambitious and consequential contribution to American history.
My ex used to sneer at me and call me an elitist WASP (I wasn't --- gasp --- Polish or Roman Catholic!) there is nothing wrong with being a WASP unless you are an absolute snob, use it to be an "influencer/content creator" or use it as a weapon of oppression These are names that even this Canadian has heard of and no one and I mean NO ONE but Michael Gross should have written this book as he is the master of skewering people.
Think Mayflower Madame and you know how deep the WASP culture in the USA runs (am I showing my age by that reference??? how about Waldorf or Astor(ia)? Boston Brahmins?) and how it still reverberates today. The book was FASCINATING, and I doubt that there is a book club I will not recommend it to, and I can also think of dozens of patrons who would enjoy this book as much as I did. It is a long book but not a hard book to read - I was surprised at how easily it flowed and how quickly even I (the ultimate speed reader) got through it.
HIGHLY recommended...what an impressive book! #shortbutsweetreviews
June 3, 2024
3.5 stars. It's 4 for the research and the sheer amount of information here; it's 3 because it just doesn't GO anywhere.
WASPs settled this country (or stole it, let's face it) and pretty much ran it for a long time. They're responsible for a lot of the good things about it (our democratic institutions, for example) and plenty of the bad things (the electoral college, which came about to placate slave owners in the southern states, for example). They had a good run, but their economic clout was diluted by shared inheritances, massive properties divided or sold for development, and (let's face it again) their eventual inability to keep doors closed to outsiders. Some of them still have a crap-ton of money; some of them are wastrels; some of them are hard-working strivers for social change; some are jerks. In their infinite variety, they're...just like us? But not really. Most of us are pretty invisible outside our own circles, but it's hard to hide when your gene pool includes Biddles, Whitneys, or Astors -- or some combo of those, because the WASP milieu was, for lack of a better term, pretty incestuous.
You get more or less detailed biographies of WASPs from colonial times to today, weaving those stories into history. I learned a lot -- I had heard of Gouverneur Morris, but I didn't realize the depth of his influence on the early republic. I didn't know how intertwined these families' lives and destinies were. And I did not know that today's immigration panic had an earlier appearance involving eugenics and the Museum of Natural History. I guess for WASPs, denigrating the "other" and worrying about being replaced just never gets old.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the book due to its meticulous documentation and research; I didn't think that it really got to its stated thesis, though. And I had trouble keeping a lot of the people straight -- so many of them were named for each other, or names were just reused, that I couldn't tell what generation of a family I was dealing with.
If you're looking for a sociological study or a book that actually proves something, this isn't it. But if you like stories about flawed human beings living out existences in privilege (or, sometimes, in quiet desperation), and you like history that's told through those lives, then you'd probably enjoy this.
WASPs settled this country (or stole it, let's face it) and pretty much ran it for a long time. They're responsible for a lot of the good things about it (our democratic institutions, for example) and plenty of the bad things (the electoral college, which came about to placate slave owners in the southern states, for example). They had a good run, but their economic clout was diluted by shared inheritances, massive properties divided or sold for development, and (let's face it again) their eventual inability to keep doors closed to outsiders. Some of them still have a crap-ton of money; some of them are wastrels; some of them are hard-working strivers for social change; some are jerks. In their infinite variety, they're...just like us? But not really. Most of us are pretty invisible outside our own circles, but it's hard to hide when your gene pool includes Biddles, Whitneys, or Astors -- or some combo of those, because the WASP milieu was, for lack of a better term, pretty incestuous.
You get more or less detailed biographies of WASPs from colonial times to today, weaving those stories into history. I learned a lot -- I had heard of Gouverneur Morris, but I didn't realize the depth of his influence on the early republic. I didn't know how intertwined these families' lives and destinies were. And I did not know that today's immigration panic had an earlier appearance involving eugenics and the Museum of Natural History. I guess for WASPs, denigrating the "other" and worrying about being replaced just never gets old.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the book due to its meticulous documentation and research; I didn't think that it really got to its stated thesis, though. And I had trouble keeping a lot of the people straight -- so many of them were named for each other, or names were just reused, that I couldn't tell what generation of a family I was dealing with.
If you're looking for a sociological study or a book that actually proves something, this isn't it. But if you like stories about flawed human beings living out existences in privilege (or, sometimes, in quiet desperation), and you like history that's told through those lives, then you'd probably enjoy this.
January 21, 2024
Mildly to moderately interesting, but no more. Might be more interesting to those who know less history of some of the particular individual WASPS or families, whether "back then" (John Randolph of Roanoke, Gouverneur Morris) or descendants of some other families today. (I note another three-starrer who had hoped for more "dish.")
Several errors. One jumped out in the first 20 pages, that "Plymouth was the fourth permanent European settlement on the North American continent." Not even close, as Mexico (and I presume today's Central America) had multiple Spanish-founded cities NOT built on previous Native American sites, but pre-Plymouth. Off the top of my head, I knew of both Veracruz and San Luis Potosi. And, not true even for the future US and Canada, as Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded pre-Plymouth. (Another writing of New Mexico out of US history? I'm shocked. Also, a European-based "thanksgiving" was probably first done by Juan de Oñate at the site of today's El Paso more than 20 years before the Pilgrims, though that's not explicitly discussed in this book.)
Beyond errors, there are definitional issues. Are the Scotch-Irish WASPS? Not in my book, at least not at the time of the Second Great American Political System, when Scotch-Irish Jackson replaced both the Virginia planters and the New Englanders. That said, both Adamses were WASPS, despite not being fully looped in my Gross in the Randolph chapter. Other parts of his set-up in his introduction seemed a bit shaky, too.
Finally, other than to say, WASPS are in decline, but they haven't disappeared and aren't going totally quietly, what is the thesis of this book? And, why these particular individuals and families and not others, especially since the Randolphs, for example, died out, and per recent history, the related Jeffersons survived through Sally Hemings as much as anything.
Several errors. One jumped out in the first 20 pages, that "Plymouth was the fourth permanent European settlement on the North American continent." Not even close, as Mexico (and I presume today's Central America) had multiple Spanish-founded cities NOT built on previous Native American sites, but pre-Plymouth. Off the top of my head, I knew of both Veracruz and San Luis Potosi. And, not true even for the future US and Canada, as Santa Fe, New Mexico, was founded pre-Plymouth. (Another writing of New Mexico out of US history? I'm shocked. Also, a European-based "thanksgiving" was probably first done by Juan de Oñate at the site of today's El Paso more than 20 years before the Pilgrims, though that's not explicitly discussed in this book.)
Beyond errors, there are definitional issues. Are the Scotch-Irish WASPS? Not in my book, at least not at the time of the Second Great American Political System, when Scotch-Irish Jackson replaced both the Virginia planters and the New Englanders. That said, both Adamses were WASPS, despite not being fully looped in my Gross in the Randolph chapter. Other parts of his set-up in his introduction seemed a bit shaky, too.
Finally, other than to say, WASPS are in decline, but they haven't disappeared and aren't going totally quietly, what is the thesis of this book? And, why these particular individuals and families and not others, especially since the Randolphs, for example, died out, and per recent history, the related Jeffersons survived through Sally Hemings as much as anything.
August 23, 2024
I'm from an old Southern WASP family. My mother's family has lived on the same farm since before Kentucky became a state. There's even some FFV blood back there somewhere. And I was always taught growing up (mostly by my paternal grandmother whose ancestors were actually more questionable) that I had fine ancestors that I should be proud of. Never mind that they were slaveholders. And my people were mostly comfortable, but never rich. In high school (a fancy boarding school) I met people whose families were true Southern aristocrats, who had lots of money and names that everyone knows, but they were not much different as people from the people I grew up with. Then I went to college at an Ivy League school and met people from the old New England families. Wow. What a difference. Those people were from another planet. I didn't get them and they didn't get me. I could maybe have played the Southern gentleman card and got into their good graces, but why would I? I wanted nothing to do with them. This book is the story of those people. Mr. Gross, though he is in no way part of this group himself, makes the case that they embody some praisworthy values that helped to define America. He acknowledges their faults - their elitism, their racisim, their complicity in slavery and oppressive capitalism, their occasional wastefulness, and their black sheep. But he also sees them as standing for freedom, liberty, education, culture, hard work and other positive values. Maybe. The people from old line WASP families who I have met mostly embody the negative values, though I acknowledge that the only person named in this book who I actually know is a thoroughly good person who I am proud to consider a friend. So perhaps Mr. Gross has a point after all.
November 4, 2025
The overall points Gross tries making are bogged down by seemingly endless names and gossip. The book would have been better as an overall history of WASP influence in America, or a set of individual biographies. There is glimmers of the former in the book’s better points, but it drags too often to really make a lasting impact.
Perhaps the best points of the book were the progressive era and the book’s concluding remarks. Eugenics and the question of preserving WASP dominance in particular had the most amount of intellectual ‘meat’ to them, rather than the various scandals and institutions individuals got themselves into.
An additional nitpick is how clumsily the overall narrative of the chapters was often wrapped up by referring to the original family which the chapter is supposed to be about after straying so far away from the original figures.
Perhaps the best points of the book were the progressive era and the book’s concluding remarks. Eugenics and the question of preserving WASP dominance in particular had the most amount of intellectual ‘meat’ to them, rather than the various scandals and institutions individuals got themselves into.
An additional nitpick is how clumsily the overall narrative of the chapters was often wrapped up by referring to the original family which the chapter is supposed to be about after straying so far away from the original figures.
December 31, 2023
Thank you NetGalley, Atlantic Monthly Press and the author for a digital ARC of this book. This is a well researched and very detailed book about fifteen individuals and their families. It covers the settling of America through the present day and the role American WASPs have played in the United States and the rest of the world. Prominent names mentioned include Bradford, Morris, Whitney, Vanderbilt, Astor and Roosevelt. This is a mix of academic textbook combined with a bit of gossip. Readers who enjoy American history will find this very interesting. I enjoyed the chapters dealing with the Gilded Age the most but did learn some new facts about the Colonial period.
April 11, 2024
Nothing lasts forever as the country continues to diversify demographically and economically. The flight embodies rogues, rebels, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, politicians --- and racists who have been de-bunked and out of touch as the country moves to egalitarianism. Good research and illustrative narrative.
May 13, 2023
This is not tittle tattle about debutante balls and Society- this Deep History.
The author has done his home work and I have learned more about early American settlers than I ever did in school. I wasn’t expecting so much information about the time when the WASPs were the only game in town. We get to the Gilded Age 50% and the things get a bit more spicy. See it through.
The author has done his home work and I have learned more about early American settlers than I ever did in school. I wasn’t expecting so much information about the time when the WASPs were the only game in town. We get to the Gilded Age 50% and the things get a bit more spicy. See it through.
February 6, 2024
If you enjoy reading the extremely detailed lineage of the settlers of New England, this book is for you. I have to confess I skipped the first few sections & went straight to the Golden Age. I loved reading "740 Park" and thought this would be similar. I found it really wordy & textbook-like.
March 14, 2024
This is a dense but worthwhile opus. Gross shares impressive detail for each family dynasty and period he documents. By the end, this reader understood how we’ve reached the society and country we have today.
March 31, 2024
Interesting to read American history from a class perspective - something that was an integral part of my learning of other regions' history, but never US. While I missed a more narrative structure, I found myself compelled to keep reading to the.last page.
May 25, 2024
A deeply strange book that quite seems to know whether it wants to be a history, a collection of biographies (often very gossipy) or a paean. I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it can be considered a success even on its own idiosyncratic terms.
June 13, 2024
An interesting premise but turned out to be many disparate stories of various founding families and their descendants, that eventually turned into a gossipy mess. Don’t think Gross did enough synthesis here from the various stories to really drive his point home
August 12, 2024
I struggled with this book. It had way too many details, most of which didn't interest me. I did draw some conclusions about WASPs, but I'm not sure they're the ones the author intended. I think I'd been better off reading a Wikipedia article.
December 3, 2023
fact filled but a little dull
As a reader of Michael Gross’s earlier books I think I was expecting something a bit dishier. This was a well researched but rather dull history of the good, bad and ugly of the WASPs.
As a reader of Michael Gross’s earlier books I think I was expecting something a bit dishier. This was a well researched but rather dull history of the good, bad and ugly of the WASPs.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews