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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

Volume of Reader Ratings

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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

"As you go along, you keep waiting for comment from anyone besides the very rich, but there's not a direct quote from a Latino person until far into 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

"If the book stumbles at all, it's in the hammy way Farrell sums up his approach and flaunts his equanimity, as well as his tic of referring back to and even quoting in bold earlier sections of the book — as if we weren't stunned the first time by the super-rich guy claiming his fishmonger is a really good friend ..."

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

"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

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