The world’s first dramatic-documentary-musical satire explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, the presence of an elite in our nominally democratic republic. Harper’s Magazine editor Lewis Lapham takes two young Ivy-League graduates on a tour of the corridors of power and their own career possibilities. Along the way they meet an all-star cast, including, among many others, former cabinet secretaries (James Baker) corporate mandarins (Peter G. Peterson) newspaper publishers (Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.) and at least one journalist working as a waitress (Barbara Ehrenreich). By story’s end, the graduates’ choice of career takes on great weight: will they try to save the world, or rule it?

Ruling Class in USia

The Participants: An all-star ensemble cast

Robert B. Altman Film Producer, Director and Writer

James A. Baker III Honorary Chair, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University

Secretary of State, 1989-1992, Bush Administration

Secretary of the Treasury, 1985-1988,
Reagan Administration

Under Secretary of Commerce, 1975-1976, Ford Administration

Bill Bradley Allen & Company

US Senator, New Jersey, 1978-1997

NBA, Starting Forward, New York Knicks, 1967-1977

Harold Brown Partner, Warburg Pincus

Secretary of Defense, 1977-1981, Carter Administration

President, California Institute of Technology, 1969-1977

Secretary of the Air Force, 1965-1969,
Johnson Administration

Hodding Carter III President, Knight Foundation

State Department Spokesman, 1977-1980, Carter Administration

William T. Coleman, Jr. Attorney, O’Melveny and Myers

Secretary of Transportation, 1975-1977,
Ford Administration

Walter Cronkite Journalist

CBS News Anchorman, 1962-1981

Barbara Ehrenreich Author, Journalist

Vartan Gregorian President, Carnegie Corporation

President, Brown University, 1989-1997

President, The New York Public Library, 1981-1989

Mike Medavoy Chairman, Phoenix Pictures

Chairman, Tri-Star Pictures, 1990-1994

Co-Founder, Orion Pictures, 1978-1990

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Dean, Harvard University, Kennedy School of

Government, 1995-2004

Chairman, National Intelligence Council, 1993-1994,

Clinton Administration

Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security

Affairs, 1994-1995, Clinton Administration

Samuel Peabody Educator, Philanthropist

Pete Seeger Folksinger, Songwriter

Lawrence H. Summers President, Harvard University

Secretary of the Treasury, 1999-2001,
Clinton Administration

Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. Chairman, The New York Times Company

Publisher, The New York Times

William Howard Taft IV Chief Legal Advisor, US State Department

Acting Secretary of Defense, 1989, Bush Administration

Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1984-1989, Reagan Administration

Kurt Vonnegut author, Essayist, Dramatist

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