The Rise Of The Meritocracy: 1870-2033
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What happens when a society perfects the art of sorting its citizens by intelligence and ability alone? Michael Young's The Rise of the Meritocracy: 1870-2033 is a razor-sharp work of satirical fiction that chronicles the fictional rise and ultimate collapse of a British society built entirely on merit — a world where IQ plus effort equals status, and where the consequences of such ruthless efficiency prove far more sinister than its architects ever imagined. Narrated as a sociological report written in the year 2033, the novel presents a dystopian Britain in which the ruling class has achieved its position through certified intellectual superiority, leaving the less able masses disenfranchised, resentful, and ripe for revolt. Young's visionary work, first published in 1958, coined the very term meritocracy — a word the author intended as a warning, not a blueprint — and its prescience only grows more unsettling with each passing decade. Written with biting wit and a scholar's precision, the book argues that any system of social stratification, however scientifically justified, carries within it the seeds of its own undoing. Young masterfully blurs the line between utopia and dystopia, between progress and oppression, leaving the reader to ask a deeply uncomfortable question: if the meritocracy has truly arrived, who exactly is it serving?
Author: Michael Young
Format: Paperback
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What happens when a society perfects the art of sorting its citizens by intelligence and ability alone? Michael Young's The Rise of the Meritocracy: 1870-2033 is a razor-sharp work of satirical fiction that chronicles the fictional rise and ultimate collapse of a British society built entirely on merit — a world where IQ plus effort equals status, and where the consequences of such ruthless efficiency prove far more sinister than its architects ever imagined. Narrated as a sociological report written in the year 2033, the novel presents a dystopian Britain in which the ruling class has achieved its position through certified intellectual superiority, leaving the less able masses disenfranchised, resentful, and ripe for revolt. Young's visionary work, first published in 1958, coined the very term meritocracy — a word the author intended as a warning, not a blueprint — and its prescience only grows more unsettling with each passing decade. Written with biting wit and a scholar's precision, the book argues that any system of social stratification, however scientifically justified, carries within it the seeds of its own undoing. Young masterfully blurs the line between utopia and dystopia, between progress and oppression, leaving the reader to ask a deeply uncomfortable question: if the meritocracy has truly arrived, who exactly is it serving?