David Rothkopf on his book, "Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making."
Event Type:
LectureMonday, April 28, 2008 - 6:00pm - Monday, April 28, 2008 - 7:30pm
David Rothkopf's new book, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making, tells the story of today's ‘superclass’ that has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. Each of them is one in a million; numbering six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and from the shadows, the world's most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They global ‘superclass’ will shape the history of our time.
This ‘superclass’ has globalized more rapidly than any other group. But nationalist critics question whether they have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen. As a result of their control on globalization, has their influence fed the growing economic and social inequity that divides the world? What happens behind closed door meetings in Davos or aboard corporate jets at 41,000 feet, conspiracy or collaboration? Is it deal-making or idle self-indulgence? What does the rise of Asia and Latin America mean for the conventional wisdom that shapes our destinies? Who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws? Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass answers all of these questions and more. It draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though that society profoundly affects our everyday lives. Superclass is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. It is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the ‘superclass’, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.
David Rothkopf is the widely acclaimed author of Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. He is the president and chief executive of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a teacher of international affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of International and Public Affairs.
The World Beyond the Headlines series is a collaborative project of the Center for International Studies, the International House Global Voices Program, and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, and is funded in part by the McCormick Tribune Foundation. Its aim is to bring scholars and journalists together to consider major international issues and how they are covered in the media.
Visit http://internationalstudies.uchicago.edu/wbh.shtml for more information.
This event is free and open to the public. If you are a person with a disability who may need additional assistance to attend this event, please call Jamie Bender at (773) 834-3852.