First published in 1956, THE ENERGY Elite stands being a contemporary classic of social science and cultural criticism. C. Wright Mills examines and critiques the organization of power in america, calling attention to three securely interlocked prongs of power: the military, corporate, and politics elite. The Power Elite could be browse as an excellent account of that which was taking place in the us at the time it was created, but its root question of whether America is really as democratic used as about The Power Elite it really is in theory continues to matter quite definitely today.

What The Power Elite informed readers of in 1956 was just how much the business of power in America had changed during their lifetimes, and Alan Wolfe’s astute afterword to this fresh edition brings us current, illustrating just how much more has changed since then. Wolfe kinds out what is helpful in Mills’s book and which of his predictions have not come to carry, laying out the radical changes in American capitalism, from intense global competition as well as the collapse of communism to fast technological transformations and ever changing customer tastes. The Power Elite has stimulated generations of visitors to think about the type of culture they have and the kind of society they might wish, and deserves to be go through by every brand-new generation.