We've all felt the sting of rankism - at the hands of a dictatorial boss, a condescending teacher, an arrogant doctor, or an imperious bureaucrat. And most of us have inflicted it on someone else. We are, all of us, both victims and perpetrators of rankism, and Robert Fuller argues that it's time for a novel, all-encompassing strategy to confront it in all its guises.

Advocating a "dignitarian" society, he shows how dignity can be broadly protected in our professional and political institutions as well as in our personal lives. "Just as a civil rights movement took on racism, and the feminist movement takes on sexism, so the dignitarian movement takes on rankism."

Robert Fuller looks at life through a provocative and unusual lens, cogently arguing the case for redesigning our social institutions to create a dignitarian society.