I’m trying to find some nonfiction books about the study of wealth and wealthy people. Not how to build wealth, not financial advice, and not books on oppression, which are always what I get when I try Google.
I’m more looking for books on how the oppressed/less wealthy stay in the lower class due to a difference in behavior and upbringing between the lower and upper class. Books on how wealth is displayed through clothing, language, leisure, etc. Even an old money versus new money examination of how our spending communicates social status.
It’s a subject I’m very interested in learning about, but I’d like to read about it in-depth beyond just educational videos. Looking for a sociological/philosophical angle more than a political one. Literary and narrative nonfiction works too!
Thank you!!
by _marshmallord_
6 Comments
Uh this feels a little in bad faith given that your question is based in an assumption of individual blame (it’s the poors’ fault for being poor) for something that is….pretty connected to systems of oppression, which you say you don’t want to read about.
But there are folks who write about this. Perhaps a good place to start might be the sociologist who first coined the term “conspicuous consumption” – you could go down a rabbit hole of things he wrote, things other wrote leveraging his theory, and even more things written in critique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption
In general it sounds like the genre of writing you’re looking for is sociological examinations of wealth and poverty.
Class by Paul Fussell
>I’m more looking for books on how the oppressed/less wealthy stay in the lower class due to a difference in behavior and upbringing between the lower and upper class.
That’s not how generational poverty works, so that would be why you’re struggling to find books on the topic.
Banerjee and Duflo’s Poor Economics look at the spending and consumption habits of the world’s poorest
Debt by David Graeber
thomas piketty.