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Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West
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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
"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 ..."
"He describes their delusions that poor local employers such as builders are friends, and the ironic frustrations of some with arriviste financiers and Silicon Valley billionaires ..."
"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 ..."
"By delegating the job of interviewing the Latino subjects to the nonprofit whose identity he disguises (though it must be easy to guess which nonprofit it is), the author puts us at a remove from the poorest residents."
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