"From TV's "real housewives" to The Wolf of Wall Street, our popular culture portrays the wealthy as materialistic and entitled. But what do we really know about those who live on "easy street"? In this penetrating book, Rachel Sherman draws on rare in-depth interviews that she conducted with fifty affluent New Yorkers--from hedge fund financiers and artists to stay-at-home mothers--to examine their lifestyle choices and understanding of privilege....

"A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler ... but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye." -- "Irene, an eccentric, wealthy Manhattanite, wins a society-ball scavenger hunt after finding a "forgotten man"-- an apparent down-and-out drifter-- at a dump. She gives him work as the family butler and soon falls head over heels for him. Her attempts to both woo Godfrey and indoctrinate him in the household's dysfunction make for...

"Why does inequality have such a hold on American society and public policy? And what can we, as citizens, do about it? Inequality in America takes an in-depth look at individual-level and systemic inequality, focusing in particular on race, poverty, and gender, across a wide range of issues from housing and education to crime, employment and health. Caliendo shows how individual-level prejudice and systemic inequality are interrelated, how individual...