The Rich

Author John Kampfner
Narrator Roger Davis
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Run Time 18 hours and 31 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Economics.

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What to expect

From the Orwell Prize shortlisted author of Freedom for Sale, The Rich is the fascinating history of how economic elites from ancient Egypt to the present day have gained and spent their money.

Starting with Ancient Egypt and Greece and culminating with the oligarchies of modern Russia and China, it compares and contrasts the rich and powerful down the ages and around the world. What unites them? Have the same instincts of entrepreneurship, ambition, vanity, greed and philanthropy applied throughout?

As contemporary politicians, economists and the public wrestle with the inequities of our time - the parallel world inhabited by the ultra-wealthy at a time of broader hardship - it is salutary to look to history for explanations. This book synthesises thousands of years of human behaviour and asks the question: is the development of the globalised super-rich over the past twenty years anything new?

Critics Review

Praise for John Kampfner: One of Britain’s most distinguished political writers

Mail on Sunday

The Rich is an absorbing read . . . there is plenty of rich material

The Times

The Rich is witty, extremely readable and home to all sorts of enjoyably crazy figures

Observer

Fascinating

Tatler

More readable than Piketty . . . original and enjoyable

Literary Review

A vivid account

Independent

The Rich bursts with fascinating details about the lives of a colourful cast of ultra-wealthy characters . . . a sweeping narrative that traces a lineage from the majesty of earlier ages to the oligarchs and tycoons of the present day

Financial Times

A panoramic and solidly researched new book . . . Good books leave you knowing more than you did to start with, and feeling less complacent about what you believed. On both of those counts, The Rich does the business

Weekend Australian

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