Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Nelson W. Aldrich on Preppies

I totally ripped this off from Ivy Style.  I just wanted to post it here, because I find it such a fascinating article, and I haven't been able to find it in this much entirety anywhere else.  Thanks Christian!


“Preppies: The Last Upper Class?”
By Nelson W. Aldrich, Jr.
Atlantic Monthly, January 1979 (excerpts)

“Preppie” is a catchall epithet to take the pace of words too worn or elaborate for everyday use, words such as privileged, ruling class, aristocrat, society woman, gentleman, and the rich. Ideological struggle is too shaming to talk about these days. Lifestyle rivalry is the new engine of history. In this sort of society, Preppies pass for an upper class.

There are two sorts of Preppies, the self-made and the hereditary. Hereditary Preppies will have a Preppie parent or two — a parent, that is, who went to a prep school. But the purest of the type will go to the same prep school as his parent.

What's in My Big Head?

In answer...not much.  I've been trying, for some time, to define what it is I'm wanting to do with this blog--but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Contrary to what many readers may think, this blog will not really be about me, my ego, or my rather large cranium.  Instead, it's a repository for everything that interests me or strikes my fancy.  So...instead of trying to put some pre-conceived limits on this thing...here we go...