Edmund Wilson: nineteenth-century man -- Dawn Powell: queen of the golden age -- Lost New York -- The romance of Sinclair Lewis -- Twain on the grand tour -- Reply to a critic -- Twain's letters -- Rabbit's own burrow -- A note on The city and the pillar and Thomas Mann -- Anthony Burgess -- Pride -- Lindbergh: the eagle is grounded -- Sinatra -- C.P. Cavafy -- George -- Amistad -- FDR: love on the Hudson -- Wiretapping the oval office -- Clare Boothe Luce -- Truman -- Hersh's JFK -- Nixon R.I.P. -- Clinton-Gore I -- Bedfellows make strange politics -- Clinton-Gore II -- Honorable Albert A. Gore, Junior -- Kopkind -- Bad history -- Blair -- How we missed the Saturday dance -- The last empire -- In the lair of the octopus -- With extreme prejudice -- Time for a people's convention -- The union of the state -- Mickey Mouse, historian -- U.S. out of UN-UN out of U.S. -- Race against time -- Chaos -- Shredding the Bill of Rights -- The new theocrats -- Coup de Starr -- Starr conspiracy -- Birds and bees and Clinton -- A letter to be delivered -- Democratic vistas -- Three lies to rule by -- Japanese intentions in the second World War.