CIRCUS OF AMBITION: The Culture of Wealth and Power in the Eighties <i> by John Taylor (Warners: $12.95) </i>

John Taylor chronicles and laments the elevation of greed from the status of Deadly Sin to national ideal during the 1980s in this brief social history. He recounts the fiscal shenanigans of investment banker Charlie Atkins (who spent an estimated $18 million a year on himself during the early ‘80s); watches artist Mark Kostabi grind out high-priced paintings in his loft-factory, and shares the gaucheries of billionairess Susan Gutfreund. Taylor draws an accurate parallel between the nouveaux riches of the last decade and the millionaire parvenus who conquered New York society in an orgy of ostentation after the Civil War. But he fails to offer any detailed analysis of the economic, psychological and social factors that underlie the contemporary celebration of greed and wealth. The salacious, isn’t-this-terrible-read-on-for-the- next-juicy-revelation tone suggests that “Circus of Ambition” was written, well, to make money.