http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/piketty-day-notes/

And let me say that while the core of Piketty's work is his economic analysis, his discussion of the political economy of dynastic wealth is a major additional highlight. I was especially struck by the somewhat paradoxical contrast between Belle Epoque France and Gilded Age America: a notionally egalitarian society in which anything that might challenge the privileges of inherited wealth was beyond the pale, versus a society that celebrated financial success but in which it was considered reasonable and respectable to advocate high taxation for the explicit purpose of reducing inequality. It seems to me that we want some real scholarship -- from political scientists, not (or not just) economists -- to figure out that contrast, and learn lessons that might help us break the cycle of rising dynastic power we face today.