The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

Adrian Wooldridge

Simon and Schuster, Jul 13, 2021 - Political Science - 504 pages

The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.

Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.

Contents

• A Revolutionary Idea: 1
• Homo hierarchicus: 25
• Family Power: 35
• Nepotism Patronage Venality: 47
• Plato and the Philosopher Kings: 59
• China and the Examination State: 72
• The Chosen People: 86
• The Golden Ladder: 99
• Europe and the Career Open to Talent 117 144: 117
• Britain and the Intellectual Aristocracy: 144
• The United States and the Republic of Merit: 175
• The Measurement of Merit: 205
• The Meritocratic Revolution: 234
• Girly Swots: 256
• The Revolt on the Left: 279
• The Corruption of the Meritocracy: 306
• The Revolt on the Right: 329
• Asia Rediscovers Meritocracy: 350
• Renewing Meritocracy: 367
• Acknowledgements: 399
• Index: 445

About the author

Adrian Wooldridge is the political editor and a columnist at the Economist. He earned a doctorate in history from Oxford University, where he was a Fellow of All Souls College. He is the author of ten previous books, including Capitalism in America co-written with Alan Greenspan and seven co-written with John Micklethwait: The Wake-Up Call, The Witch Doctors, A Future Perfect, The Company, The Right Nation, God is Back, and The Fourth Revolution.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World
• Author: Adrian Wooldridge
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2021
• ISBN: 1510768610, 9781510768611
• Length: 504 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations; Political Science / Political Economy; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy