WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy
America has a long history with the altruistic and high-minded ideals of the WASP: the White (or Wealthy, in some cases) Anglo-Saxon Protestant. In this richly (no pun intended) examined and charming history, Michael Knox Beran gets to the heart (or hive?) of a distinctly American phenomenon.
The book follows the lives and aspirations of a range of prominent American WASP icons, such as Henry Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, Philip and Kay Graham, as well as an endless coterie of writers and socialites like George Santayana and Babe Paley. In their prime, Beran claims, it was their “longing for completeness” that distinguished the WASP and their attitudes, which did much to shape the country we know today. Illustrating how the past still speaks to the present, Beran concedes that “to understand our problems [we require] some knowledge of their mistakes.” The most lasting and attractive contribution of the WASP—still so relevant for people from all backgrounds and vocations today—is that we all labor “under the burden of our unused potential” to make a better world.
Exhaustively researched and magnanimous in scope, WASPS is top-shelf American history at its best.
