Status Revolution: The Improbable Story of How the Lowbrow Became the Highbrow

Status was once easy to identifyfast cars, fancy shoes, sprawling estates, elite brands. But in place of Louboutins and Lamborghinis, the relevance of the rich, famous, and gauche is waning and a riveting revolution is underfoot.

Chuck Thompsondubbed savagely funny byThe New York Timesand wickedly entertaining by theSan Francisco Chroniclesets out to determine what status means today and learns that what was once considered the low life has become the high life. InThe Status Revolution, Thompson tours the new world of status from a small community in British Columbia where an indigenous artist uses wood carving to restore communal status; to a Washington, DC, meeting of the Patriotic Millionaires, a club of high-earners who are begging the government to tax them; to a luxury auto factory in the south of Italy where making beautiful cars is as much about bringing dignity to a low-earning region than it is about flash and indulgence; to a London lab where the neural secrets of status are being unlocked.

Chock-full of fascinating revelations (In Touch Weekly) and with his signature wit and irreverence, Thompson explains why everything we know about status is changing, upends centuries of conventional wisdom, and shows how the new status revolution reflects our place in contemporary society.

Hardcover, Jan 17th 2023