The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age
David Callahan, 343 pages, $28.95. In "The Givers," Callahan brings inequality to life. He draws a startling picture of the astounding growth of private American wealth in the past quarter-century, the people who have accumulated it and the ways they are using their money, often aggressively, to change the world — sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Callahan's account of how the rich exercise power in modern America is ominous and grim. In oil tycoon J. Paul Getty's day, great wealth was rare; today Forbes identifies 540 American billionaires. Callahan reports that 70,000 Americans are worth more than $30 million. Five thousand American households have assets worth more than $100 million — without counting their real estate. They are a diverse group, but Callahan argues that a common thread now connects many, probably most of them: They believe in charity. Giving away vast quantities of money is a status symbol for the super rich from the Koch brothers to Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates. Callahan, creator of the online publication Inside Philanthropy, is not a great writer. His book is really an extended piece of journalism, reporting a great many intriguing facts. Analysis is not a strong suit, and his caution in judging the giant egos of the philanthropists he writes about can be frustrating. But Callahan has performed a public service by assembling a striking body of information on a fundamental aspect of 21st-century America, a century when the wealth of the average family has stagnated while the wealth of the rich has soared.
WASHINGTON POST
