E. Digby Baltzell

American sociologist at Penn who coined the term WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) — author of The Protestant Establishment and Philadelphia Gentlemen — who studied the American ruling class and argued that its closure to meritocratic talent (Jews, Catholics, Blacks) caused its decline.

Provided the sociological analysis of the American WASP establishment's self-destruction — Baltzell's central argument is that ruling classes persist by remaining open to talent from below (Rome, aristocratic Britain) and decline when they become caste-like closed circles (his own WASP establishment post-1900).