Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class - Softcover

E. Digby Baltzell (1915-1996) was professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Protestant Establishment Revisited and Philadelphia Gentlemen.

“A very, very important book.”

—The New York Times

“Philadelphia Gentlemen says important things about class and power in America, and says them in ways that will interest and fascinate.”

—Seymour Martin Lipset, American Sociological Review

"Sociologists, in their studies of social classes in America, have emphasized the existence of several dimensions of stratification. Wealth, prestige, and power, they have attempted to show, create qualitatively different hierarchical systems which while closely bound together are none the less distinct. In his fascinating study of 'Proper Philadelphia,' Mr. Baltzell has retained this scheme by separating the élite—the dimension of power—from the upper class—the dimension of prestige. . . . Philadelphia Gentlemen provides a coherent picture of an upper class."

—John Porter, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science

"The very strength of Philadelphia Gentlemen—its attention to historical development—underlines the failure of Pennsylvania historians, by and large, to provide adequate intensive studies of the careers of individual businessmen, the patterns of economic and social change, the political movements, the intellectual, religious, and artistic atmosphere—the historical milieu, in a word, out of which his Philadelphia gentlemen emerged."

—Frederick B. Tolles, Pennsylvania History

"The author of Philadelphia Gentlemen has done an excellent job of research and of presentation. By the time they reach the end of the book, the readers will be well acquainted with the social life and the various characteristics of a metropolitan society's upper class. In short, the book is a fine sociological study and as such a good investment for the college library as well as the personal library of any sociologist, psychologist, or social worker."

—Sister Mechtraud, S.SP.S, The American Catholic Sociological Review

"A valuable work. Men of power in our great cities may not necessarily be men of national power. But the cities themselves are of immense importance; our knowledge of them and of the direction of life in them will be greatly enhanced when we have studies of other metropolitan upper classes as good as this one of Philadelphia."

—William Miller, American Sociological Review

"Well written and all terms are defined concisely. Philadelphia Gentlemen is a gold mine of information and a possible guide to future class analyses. Historians should thank Baltzell for providing some concrete measuring methods for social history."

—Dorothy D. Gondos, The American Historical Review