#131 - Gregory Clark - Why Everything The West Believes About Social Mobility Is Wrong

#131 - Gregory Clark - Why Everything The West Believes About Social Mobility Is Wrong

From Thinking Class by John Gillam

June 11, 2026 · 58 min

About this episode

Professor Gregory Clark discusses misconceptions about social mobility in the West.

Professor Gregory Clark is a British-born economic historian at the University of California, Davis and holds a DNRF Chair at the Danish National Research Foundation and a professor at the Historical Economics and Development Group (HEDG) at the Department of Economics, SDU. Furthermore, he is a Visiting Professor at London School of Economics (LSE) and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UC Davis. He is the author of A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World and The Son Als...

People in this episode

Host: John Gillam

Guest: Gregory Clark

Topics covered

  • social mobility
  • economic history
  • Western beliefs
  • education
  • socioeconomic status

Keywords

  • social mobility
  • Gregory Clark
  • economic history
  • Western beliefs
  • socioeconomic status

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of California, Davis, Danish National Research Foundation, London School of Economics, UC Davis

Books & works: A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World

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