In Members Only Diana Kendall shows how the upper classes use exclusive clubs as their private domain for conducting business, fostering social networks, and launching the next generation of elites - all beyond the view of outsiders and the media. In her research, Kendall explains how and why club members routinely engage in exclusionary practices that help them accumulate personal power and social capital that is unavailable to outsiders. Members Only addresses how exclusive private clubs maintain and perpetuate class-based privilege and racial/ethnic and religious segregation, and how such patterns of social exclusion heighten social inequality. This book continues Kendall's study of the upper classes, which began with The Power of Good Deeds, and Framing Class.

By Diana Kendall

Chapter 1 The World of Exclusive Clubs
Chapter 2 Exclusion and Snobbery Take a Trip from London to America
Chapter 3 How the "Chosen Few" Are Chosen
Chapter 4 Membership Has Its Privileges
Chapter 5 Making Connections: Clubs and Political Networks
Chapter 6 Change and Resistance to Change in Membership Policies
Chapter 7 Beyond the Walls: The Wider Influence of Elite Clubs