This is a collection of 31 pieces by Lewis H. Lapham, editor of Harper's magazine and one of the wittiest and most astute analysts of post-WW II America. These essays scrutinize our national pathology of greed and self-aggrandizement. Lapham concludes we have engaged in a dissolute foreign policy, suffered a general loss of courage, humor and clearmindedness and made a steady retreat from the idea of democracy.