idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
ABOUT „AS GODS AMONG MEN. A HISTORY OF THE RICH IN THE WEST“ (PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2024)
The rich have always fascinated, sometimes in problematic ways. Medieval thinkers feared that the super-rich would act ‘as gods among men’; much more recently Thomas Piketty made wealth central to discussions of inequality. In this book, Guido Alfani offers a history of the rich and super-rich in the West, examining who they were, how they accumulated their wealth and what role they played in society. Covering the last thousand years, with frequent incursions into antiquity, and integrating recent research on economic inequality, Alfani finds—despite the different paths to wealth in different eras—fundamental continuities in the behaviour of the rich and public attitudes towards wealth across Western history. His account offers a novel perspective on current debates about wealth and income disparity.
Alfani argues that the position of the rich and super-rich in Western society has always been intrinsically fragile; their very presence has inspired social unease. In the Middle Ages, an excessive accumulation of wealth was considered sinful; the rich were expected not to appear to be wealthy. Eventually, the rich were deemed useful when they used their wealth to help their communities in times of crisis. Yet in the twenty-first century, Alfani points out, the rich and the super-rich—their wealth largely preserved through the Great Recession and COVID-19—have been exceptionally reluctant to contribute to the common good in times of crisis, rejecting even such stopgap measures as temporary tax increases. History suggests that this is a troubling development—for the rich, and for everyone else.
SPEAKER
Guido Alfani, Bocconi University, Milan
MODERATOR
Danilo Scholz, KWI
Information on participating / attending:
Date:
11/12/2024 18:00 - 11/12/2024
Event venue:
Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), Gartensaal, Goethestr. 31
45128 Essen
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
Target group:
Scientists and scholars, all interested persons
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Cultural sciences, Economics / business administration, History / archaeology, Philosophy / ethics, Social studies
Types of events:
Presentation / colloquium / lecture, Seminar / workshop / discussion
Entry:
08/06/2024
Sender/author:
Miriam Wienhold
Department:
Pressestelle
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event77440
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
