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Kendall, Diana. Members Only: Elite Clubs and the Process of Exclusion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008. 191 pages. Cloth, $80; paper, $25.95.
This study of elite city, country, and golf clubs by Diana Kendall, professor of sociology at Baylor University, adds to the literature about such institutions by reporting on primary sources and survey data pertaining to Texas's clubs. (In using the term "elite," Kendall mostly refers to extremely wealthy families whose fortune is "Old Money" and constitute the "Old Guard," as opposed to families whose accumulation of wealth is relatively recent. I will use the term "elite" similarly.)
Kendall's work answers three key questions about these clubs. First, why do elites need to establish and operate such organizations? They need these organizations for several reasons: Like other consumers, elites need a place to spend their money. Every aspect of membership is, in fact, unspeakably expensive. The initiation fee typically runs from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Annual membership fees generally exceed $10,000. Other pay-as-you-go services, such as having dinner and drinks or playing a round of golf, result in charges posted to the member's account and billed at the end of the month. A spectacular spending spree results. Employees are guided by the slogan: "The Answer Is Yes, What Is Your Question?" (Private Club Associates, quoted on p. 165). A member may host a party at the club's facility for another enormous fee. Clearly, the rule of this extravagance is that, if you have to ask what any of this costs, you cannot afford any of it, and so you do not belong anywhere nearby.
Another factor that explains the establishment of these clubs is that members crave affirmation of their social status. As Kendall observes, "Although many club members have vast and ever-growing amounts of economic capital, they find that members-only clubs provide them with something more: a unique sense of personal accomplishment and high-prestigious group identity...