Top Drawer Quotes

“Those who craved power had to belong to, or get into, the top of the upper class, because that was where power resided. The upper-upper class controlled the big corporations, the banks, the law, and the brokerage firms. Although few upper-class members took an active role in politics - some exceptions were the two Roosevelts, John Hay, Nicholas Longworth, the Hamilton Fish family, and the Tafts - there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes influencing. In order to share in that power, it was necessary not only to be rich but also to be one of the people-we-know.”
― Mary Cable, Top Drawer: American High Society from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties