For his latest book Thomas Frank, the best-selling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, went looking for public discontent in the wake of the 2008 economic meltdown.

Instead, as Frank reports in Pity the Billionaire, he found loud demands that the system be made even harsher on the recession’s victims and that society’s traditional winners receive even grander prizes.

Frank was born in Kansas City and is a graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School and the University of Kansas. He is a columnist for Harper’s and a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal.