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Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West

Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West

by Justin Farrell

Princeton University Press ·2020 ·392 pages
Academic Press
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
41/99
Bottom of the Pile

22/99

Critics' Rating Index

Bottom of the Pile

7/99

Readers' Rating Index

Top of the Pile

95/99

Scholars' Citation Index

34/99

Volume of Reviews

56/99

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About This Book

A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservation Billionaire Wilderness takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy, showing how today's richest people are using the natural environment to solve the existential dilemmas they face. Justin Farrell spent five years in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in the United States, and a community where income inequality is the worst in the nation. He conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews, gaining unprecedented access to tech CEOs, Wall Street financiers, and other prominent figures in business and politics. He also talked with the rural poor who live among the ultra-wealthy and often work for them. The result is a penetrating account of the far-reaching consequences of the massive accrual of wealth and a troubling portrait of a changing American West where romanticizing rural poverty and conserving nature can be lucrative, socially as well as financially.


Reviews

"The book contains some sections packed with academic jargon, including one about the research methodology underlying the 200-plus in-depth interviews of the wealthy and the working poor who serve them in various capacities ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"This is a serious, ugly, crazy amount of wealth, and while it feels extreme, it's important to understand as a taste of what might be in store for the rest of America ..."

Nathan Deuel· Los Angeles Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"He must have driven it himself, maybe many times, but he doesn't retrace it for our edification in the book."

Ian Frazier· New York Review of Books Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"But Farrell has divided the chapters into rigid themes, and so has missed an opportunity to tell narrative stories and explore the relations between rich and poor in a more natural way ..."

Andrew Jack· Financial Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

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