Who Rules America?  By G. William Domhoff, University of California at Santa Cruz

Links & Further Reading

Web sites

An Internet Guide to Power Structure Research
Val Burris of the University of Oregon maintains this excellent collection of power research Web links and off-line resources.
Class Action
An on-line resource center on class issues in the U.S., providing individuals and organizations with the tools and resources to work on eliminating classism.
Class Matters
A New York Times special section about the ways that class -- defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation -- influences life in American society.
Open Secrets
Use this free site, from the Center for Responsive Politics, to search for individuals and corporations that made political contributions in the last few election cycles.
Muckety
Various tools, including the impressive "Muckety Maps" to help you explore connections between the rich, famous & influential.
NNDB
An intelligence aggregator that tracks the activities of all kinds of noteworthy people, both living and dead; a mapping tool allows you to visually explore connections between people in the database.
LittleSis
Excellent, free, and up-to-date information about the powers-that-be; includes biographical information; interlocks between corporations, foundations, and think tanks; and stock ownership and campaign finance information.
A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club
A 1994 doctoral dissertation about the Bohemian Grove by Peter Martin Phillips of Sonoma State University.

Books by Bill Domhoff

Who Rules America (7th ed., 2014)
This book, whose first edition was published in 1967, is the basis for much of this site.
The Myth of Liberal Ascendancy: Corporate Dominance From the Great Depression to the Great Recession (2013)
It is commonly accepted that America saw the rise of liberalism in the wake of the New Deal, especially during the three decades after World War II. Based on new archival research, this book reveals that this period was in fact one of increasing corporate dominance in government affairs, affecting the fate of American workers up to the present day.
Class and Power in the New Deal (2011)
Co-authored with Michael Webber. Provides a new perspective on the origins and implementation of the three most important policies that emerged during the New Deal -- the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Social Security Act. It reveals how Northern corporate moderates proposed all three major initiatives and explores why there were no viable alternatives put forward by the opposition.
The Leftmost City: Power and Progressive Politics in Santa Cruz (2009)
Co-authored with Richard Gendron. This book tells the exciting story of how an unlikely coalition of socialist-feminists, environmentalists, and neighborhood activists stopped every development proposed by the previously unchecked growth coalition after 1969 and then took over the government in 1981, making Santa Cruz the leftmost city in America for the longest period of time in recent American history. The book was written because Santa Cruz is the ideal atypical case to show that growth coalition theory is right on target and that public-choice theory, Marxist urban theory, and regime theory are wrong.
Diversity in the Power Elite: How It Happened, Why It Matters (2006)
Co-authored with Richard L. Zweigenhaft. Shows that some women and people of color have made it into the Power Elite, but they tend to come from high-income backgrounds and have received elite educations; even lighter skin color can make a difference.
Changing the Powers That Be: How the Left Can Stop Losing and Win (2003)
Suggestions on how to create an egalitarian social movement in the United States, based on social science research.
Blacks in the White Elite: Will the Progress Continue? (2003)
A study of how low-income African-Americans can "make it to the top" as well as anyone else when they're given the opportunity through a scholarship program that sends them to elite private schools as young teenagers.
State Autonomy or Class Dominance? Case Studies on Policy Making in America (1996)
Uses new archival findings to criticize the State Autonomy theorists, just as they were folding up their tents and retreating to a more benign position called "Historical Institutionalism."
The Power Elite and the State: How Policy Is Made in America (1990)
A set of research-based essays that answer and refute the claims of Marxist and State Autonomy theorists.

Other books

The books listed below -- some old, some recent -- are very readable and informative on a wide range of topics relating to power. All of the titles accurately describe what they are about.

Barrow, C. W. (1993). Critical Theories Of The State: Marxist, Neo-Marxist, Post-Marxist. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Davis, J. K. (1992). Spying on America: The FBI's Domestic Counterintelligence Program. New York: Praeger.

Goodstein, E. (1999). The Trade-Off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment. Washington: Island Press.

Gotham, K. F. (2002). Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kendall, D. (2002). The Power of Good Deeds: Privileged Women and the Social Reproduction of Class. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Mann, M. (2004). The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mills, C. W. (1956). The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mills, C. W. (1962). The Marxists. New York: Dell.

Ostrander, S. A. (1984). Women of the Upper Class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Peschek, J. G. (1987). Policy-Planning Organizations: Elite Agendas and America's Rightward Turn. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Piven, F. F., & Cloward, R. A. (1993). Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (Updated ed.). New York: Vintage Books.

Useem, M. (1984). The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity in the U.S. and U.K. New York: Oxford University Press.


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