ABSTRACT
The Greek historian Herodotus and the New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno had a common interest. The chronicler of Midas and Croesus and the satirist of Park Avenue millionaires bear witness to Western society’s protracted fascination with the very rich. This chapter deals with the wealthiest Americans during the period when the United States moved from youthful to mature capitalism and then into the so-called post-industrial age where leisure and consumption bid to replace work and production as reigning social values. Psychologists trace the compulsive quest for money, symbol of and means to the ownership and control of esteemed and scarce resources, to interrelated desires for self-regard and nurturance. Spectacular expenditures were not restricted to vulgar or lordly opulence nor motivated solely by profligacy, gluttony or the glitter of high society. Indeed, the trophies of conspicuous consumption, magnificent estates, libraries and art collections, ultimately served socially redeemable ends when donated to altruistic organisations.
