CBH Talk | Country of Lords: Kim Phillips-Fein in Conversation with Steven Hahn

As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, debates about equality, democracy, and power remain as urgent as ever. Join Pulitzer Prize finalist and Columbia University historian Kim Phillips-Fein for a discussion of her new book, Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America.

In this sweeping history, Phillips-Fein traces a 250-year tradition of influential Americans who rejected the idea that all people are created equal, arguing instead that hierarchy and inequality are natural, necessary, or even desirable. From the founding era to the age of Silicon Valley, she reveals the enduring appeal of anti-egalitarian thought and its profound impact on American life.

Phillips-Fein is joined by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Steven Hahn, whose own work has explored the contested meanings of democracy, citizenship, and political power in American history. Together, they examine a provocative counter-history of the United States and consider what it can tell us about the nation's past, present, and future.

Participants

Kim Phillips-Fein is Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University. She is the author of Fear City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Invisible Hands. She lives in New York City.

Steven Hahn is an acclaimed historian whose works include Illiberal America (2024), A Nation Under Our Feet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize, and A Nation Without Borders. He is professor of history at New York University.