The Economist , Best Books of 2024 The Times , Best Ideas Books of 2024 A uniquely data-rich analysis of the British elite from the Victorian era to today: who gets in, how they get there, what they like and look like, where they go to school, and what politics they perpetuate. Are Britain’s power brokers a conservative chumocracy, born to privilege and anointed at Eton and Oxford? Or is a new progressive elite emerging with different values and political instincts? In search of answers, Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman scrutinized the profiles of over 125,000 members of the British elite from the late 1890s to today. At the heart of this meticulously researched study is the historical database of Who’s Who, but Reeves and Friedman also mined genealogical records, examined probate data, and interviewed over 200 leading figures from a wide range of backgrounds to uncover who runs Britain. What they found is that there is less movement at the top than we think. Yes, there has been some progress on including women and Black and Asian Brits, but those born into the top 1 percent are just as likely to get into the elite today as they were 125 years ago. What has changed is how elites present themselves. Today’s elite pedal hard to convince us they are perfectly ordinary. Why should we care? Because the elites we have affect the politics we get. While scholars have long proposed that the family you are born into, and the schools you attend, leave a mark on the exercise of power, the empirical evidence has been thin―until now. “Thank God for Friedman and Reeves, sociologists at the LSE and Oxford University respectively, who run a superbly dispassionate scalpel through Britain’s upper crust to expose the cultural interests, political views and social origins of the 21st-century elite…[they] tell a compelling story of cultural change…[this is] a book rich in insight, data and original thought. Connoisseurs of hypocrisy and self-delusion will find much to savour too.” ― James Marriott , The Times “A very good new book…authors Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman…have done fascinating work on the family backgrounds of current cabinet and shadow cabinet members and arrived at some remarkable findings.” ― John Harris , The Guardian “[Reeves and Friedman] describe how their country’s elites have changed since the 19th century, becoming cleverer and better at presenting themselves as ordinary. The book, flush with research, including more than 200 interviews, is superb.” ― The Economist “Leaning on the historical database of Who’s Who, the mining of genealogical records and probate data as well as interviews with more than 200 figures, …[this book] is a rigorous and meticulously researched study of Britain’s elite.” ― Chris Newlands , Financial Times “Through their analysis of schooling, hobbies and background from Who’s Who , a questionnaire of several thousand of its living members, and deeper interviews with several hundred more, Friedman and Reeves have built up an impressive longitudinal study of the British upper crust…[this book] is an important attempt to take the measure of our new and evolved elite…the achievement of this fascinating book should be to spark a broader reconsideration of our new ruling caste.” ― Nicholas Harris , New Statesman “Reeves and Friedman present…unarguable statistics, expertly packaged for dinner-table deployment…[this book] is ultra-quantitative yet admirably lucid.” ― Pratinav Anil , Literary Review “A remarkable and timely contribution to our understanding of the British ruling class, showing the ways in which elite reproduction has changed (or not) in the past century, and the mechanisms that these elites use to legitimise their position…one of the most important contributions to date to the study of the British elite, and more than that – by virtue of its empirical design – to the broader research agenda of elite composition and reproduction.” ― Berna León , London School of Economics Review of Books “Superb… Born to Rule …track[s] the pseudo-egalitarian drift of the modern establishment…Those in power have never been keener to signal their relatable, meritocratic credentials.” ― James Marriott , The Times “[A] timely and important book. [Reeves and Friedman] sketch the political, cultural, and economic context for their subject with skill…The great strength of this book is the diversity of angles from which the authors come at their subject…[and] the achievement here is a uniquely textured and detailed deep dive into a sociologically concrete élite.” ― Gordon Pentland , Australian Book Review “Pundits and politicians talk about ‘elites’ but rarely make a serious effort to say what or who they mean. What do we actually know about this mysterious species, other than that it flocks to cocktail parties? …[This book] is an evidence-based answer to that question and a richly interesting one…[The authors] tell a fascinating story about how our elites have cha