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Features

The new elite: the rise of the progressive aristocracy

Identity now trumps talent

15 April 2023

9:00 AM

15 April 2023

9:00 AM

In the pre-modern world positions in society were largely inherited. Some people were born with saddles on their backs and others booted and spurred to ride them – ‘The rich man in his castle / The poor man at his gate / God made them high or lowly / And ordered their estate’, in the words of the Victorian hymn.

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