Billionaire wilderness The ultra-wealthy and the remaking of the American West

Teton County, Wyoming, is both the richest and most unequal county in America. In recent decades it has seen an influx of the ultra wealthy drawn by both its natural beauty and its unusually favorable tax laws. What better place to study the peculiar ways of this highly influential group? Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with local residents both rich and poor, Farrell (Yale Univ.) renders a picture of how the ultra wealthy live, protect their wealth, and handle the stigma associated with being unbelievably rich. They try to fit in by adopting the locals' style of dress (flannel shirt, jeans, cowboy boots, and Carhartt jackets), decorating their homes in Western motifs, contending that the locals who work for them are their "friends," and giving generously to local causes. On this last point, however, Farrell demonstrates that this generosity is often overhyped and concentrated in safe areas, such as environmental protection and the arts, as opposed to more needed social services. In fact, many good works unwittingly or wittingly disadvantage the working poor. While wildlife may be saved, the poor are being driven out of the county in search of affordable housing. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Robert Scott Rycroft, University of Mary Washington

An examination of income inequality through the lens of Teton County, Wyoming, which is "both the richest county in the United States and the county with the nation's highest level of income inequality."Teton County has become the primary or secondary home for a large influx of multimillionaires and billionaires, who are attracted by the breathtaking natural beauty and the absence of a state income tax. A similarly large populationperhaps 30% of the countyconsists of low-income families who live in Teton County to fill jobs that serve the wealthy residents. Farrell (Sociology/Yale Univ.; The Battle for Yellowstone: Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict, 2015), a Wyoming native, found that the bulk of the low-income families are immigrants who speak Spanish as their first language. The author also writes about how he was raised by a mother who depended on rich people for income as a house cleaner. Farrell eventually moved away, becoming a first-generation college student and an academic researcher. In his chronicle of his return to where he grew up, he examines both sides of the divide. The book contains some sections packed with academic jargon, including one about the research methodology underlying the 200-plus in-depth interviews of the wealthy and the working poor who serve them in various capacities. Farrell learned that the wealthy tend to view themselves as sensitive, generous philanthropists, part of a county where everybody gets along and where distinguishing between the rich and the poor is mostly irrelevant because they are all friends. The laborers, on the other hand, do not perceive the relations as friendships. While the author found little overt hatred among the laborers, he did uncover puzzlement about why the wealthy seemed to lack empathy and self-awareness. "The working poor," writes the author, "called into question many of the positive perceptions ultra-wealthy people have of themselves.They pointed out the irony and false virtue of affluent environmentalism, and link it to the ongoing suffering of the working poor."An eye-opening look at a specific element of economic and social inequality. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.