The creative society--and the price Americans paid for it

The Creative Society is the first history to look at modern America through the eyes of its emerging ranks of professional experts, including lawyers, scientists, doctors, administrators, business managers, teachers, policy specialists and urban planners.

Covering the period from the 1890s to the early twenty-first century, Louis Galambos examines the history that shaped professionals and, in turn, their role in shaping modern America.

He considers the roles of education, anti-Semitism, racism and elitism in shaping and defining the professional cadre and examines how matters of gender, race and ethnicity determined whether women, African Americans and immigrants from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East were admitted to the professional ranks.

He also discusses the role professionals played in urbanizing the United States, keeping the economy efficient and innovative, showing the government how to provide a greater measure of security and equity, and guiding the world's leading industrial power in coping with its complex, frequently dangerous foreign relations.