The power of their glory
Subtitle: America's ruling class, the Episcopalians
By: Kit & Frederica Konolige.
Contributors: Konolige, Frederica, joint author.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Wyden Books : trade distribution by Simon and Schuster
Published: 1978
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 408
Subjects: Episcopalians -- United States; United States -- Church history; United States -- Social life and customs
Description: This is the untold story of America's power elite, the true establishment, the quintessential WASPs- the Episcopalians.
It is not the story of a religion, at least not much. No denomination reports a lower church attendance than the Episcopalians. It is, rather, the first full account of a power connection, a style, a way of life, of families who run things, whatever is worth running.
Only 2 percent of Americans are Episcopalians, but as a group they enjoy the highest income. Their influence is extraordinary. Eighteenth percent of U.S. senators are Episcopalians. So are 20 percent of the chief executives in the nation's 500 largest corporations. So are one-third of all bank presidents and many of the most prestigious lawyers.
Ever since the Declaration of Independence (two of the signers were Anglicans, later to become Episcopalians), this denomination has ruled the country with a benign, aristocratic hand; yet until now no one has explored in depth the bonds that bind the nation's true "in-group."
Groton, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are essentially Episcopalian schools, the cradles of the powerful. (Columbia had to pass a special exemption so Dwight Eisenhower could become its president - he didn't belong). Episcopalians run our foreign affairs (secretaries of state Elihu Root, Dean Acheson, Cyrus Vance); the Junior Leagues; the foreign service; the Central Intelligence Agency.
The roster of the denomination's adherents is peerless: Roosevelts, Astors, Du Ponts, Morgans, Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Harrimans, Mellons, Aldrichs, Biddles, Dillons, Cabots, Lodges, Lowells, Bundys - America's royalty, the people whom the authors call Episcocrats.
Notes: Bibliography: p. [387]-392.
Includes index.