The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
"The Son Also Rises. . . suggests that dramatic social mobility has always been the exception rather than the rule. Clark examines a host of societies over the past seven hundred years and finds that the makeup of a given country's economic élite has remained surprisingly stable."--James Surowiecki,New Yorker"An epic feat of data crunching and collaborative grind. . . . Mr. Clark has just disrupted our complacent idea of a socially mobile, democratically fluid society."--Trevor Butterworth,Wall Street Journal"Audacious . . ."--Barbara Kiser,Nature"[A]n important book, and anybody at all interested in inequality and the kind of society we have should read it."--Diane Coyle,Enlightened Economist"The Son Also Rises. . . . That is the new Greg Clark book and yes it is an event and yes you should buy it."--Tyler Cowen,Marginal Revolution"Startling. . . . Clark proposes a new way to measure mobility across nations and over time. He tracks the persistence of rare surnames at different points on the socio-economic scale. The information he gathers is absorbing in its own right, quite aside from its implications."--Clive Crook,Bloomberg View"Clark casts his net wider. He looks at mobility not across one or two generations, but across many. And he shows by focusing on surnames--last names--how families overrepresented in elite institutions remain that way, though to diminishing degrees, not just for a few generations but over centuries."--Michael Barone,Washington Examiner"Deeply challenging . . ."--Margaret Wente,Globe & Mail"Who should you marry if you want to win at the game of life? Gregory Clark . . . offers some answers in his fascinating new book,The Son Also Rises."--Eric Kaufmann,Literary Review"This intriguing book measures social mobility in a novel way, by tracing unusual surnames over several generations in nine different countries, focusing on intergenerational changes in education, wealth, and social status as indicated by occupation."--Foreign Affairs"No doubt this book will be as controversial as its thesis is thought-provoking."--Library Journal"Gregory Clark's analysis of intergenerational mobility signals a marked shift in the way economists think about social mobility."--Andrew Leigh,Sydney Morning Herald"The thesis ofThe Son Also Risesis, fundamentally, that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Ingeniously, Clark and his team of researchers look at the persistence of socioeconomic status through the lens of surnames in more than 20 societies."--Tim Sullivan,Harvard Business Review"Clark has a predilection for investigating interesting questions, as well as for literary puns. . . . [J]ust as Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, calls into question the role of capitalism in wealth creation, Clark calls into question the role of capitalism in social mobility."--Theodore Kinni,Strategy+Business.com"Clark's book is not merely intellectually clever, it's profoundly challenging. Especially for Americans, it calls into question of ourselves as individuals, as well as our long-standing image of our society. Let's hope he's wrong."--Benjamin M. Friedman,The Atlantic