Diversity in the United States power elite

In his classic sociological analysis The Power Elite, published in 1956, sociologist C. Wright Mills depicted a group of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men who ran the corporate, political and military elites in the United States. This article looks at this power elite 40 years later to consider the extent to which diversity has occurred. Each of these three institutions (the corporate, the political, and the military) is examined to see if jews, women, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and homosexuals have penetrated into the highest circles. The patterns that appear across all categories of newcomers are discussed, as is the extent to which the arrival of some newcomers has led to changes in the behavior of the power elite.