We, the Elite. History of Elitism in the United States from 1920 to 1956

Giorgio Volpe

We, the Elite. History of Elitism in the United States from 1920 to 1956

Authors

Giorgio Volpe

University of Italian Swiss

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2894-6063

Keywords:

Elite Theory, United States, Pluralism, Technocracy, Demagogy, Mosca, Pareto, Michels, Schumpeter, Lasswell, Mills

Synopsis

Publisher: FedOA Press - Federico II University Press

Series: Clio. Saggi di scienze storiche, archeologiche e storico-artistiche

Pages: 214

Languages: Italian

NBN: http://nbn.depositolegale.it/urn:nbn:it:unina-25292

Abstract: This volume deals with the problem of the reception of elitism in the United States in the period between 1920 and 1956, identifying the protagonists, the phases, and the themes that characterized it. After introducing the fundamental principles of the theory of the elites, the first part of the study reconstructs the debate that it aroused beyond the Atlantic. The second part examines the original American reworking of the elitist lesson, concentrating the analysis on the works of the authors most strongly influenced by it: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Harold D. Lasswell, Charles W. Mills. In this way, the study aims to show how Italian elitism contributed in a meaningful way to the elaboration of democratic pluralism and the construction of American political-cultural hegemony in the second post-war period.

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Author Biography

Giorgio Volpe, University of Italian Swiss

Giorgio Volpe is Post-doc Assistant at Università della Svizzera Italiana. After graduating in History at the University of Naples “Federico II”, he was fellow of the Istituto italiano di Studi storici “Benedetto Croce” in Naples, where he advanced his research on Roberto Michels (Il carteggio fra Roberto Michels e i sindacalisti rivoluzionari, 2018). He earned a PhD in History at the University of Naples “Federico II”, with a thesis about the history of Italian Syndicalism (La disillusione socialista. Storia del sindacalismo rivoluzionario in Italia, 2015). Afterwards, he was Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, where he carried on a study about the reception of the elite theory in the United States.