Biblioteka Publiczna

Aristocracy

"Arystokracja "

Autor: Doyle, William

The publicity material for Aristocracy notes that it has been published "just in time for the royal wedding". But Doyle`s succinct and informative book cuts through the "self-serving myths" of the aristocrats themselves, revealing their origins, how they organised themselves and behaved, their influence on society, how they exercised authority and how in the post-industrial age their authority has been undermined. Originally a Greek word meaning "rule by the best", aristocracy eventually became

synonymous with nobility, a word derived from the Roman term describing the office-holding patrician families. Descent (blue blood) became integral to the creation of an elite whose wealth came from ownership of land. Even today in Britain, the greatest landowner and the richest man are both dukes. "I have come to the conclusion that the aristocracy have always been shits," said diarist James Lee-Milne in 1996, after dedicating his life to saving their country houses. Despite the royal wedding, Doyle predicts their future is bleak: "The fate of these closed castes will be slowly to dwindle away to nothing."

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