Lewis Lapham received the 1995 National Magazine Award for his essay writing in which the judges discovered 'an exhilarating point of view in an age of conformity'. With invective all the more deadly for its grace and wit, Lapham presents the portrait of a feckless American establishment gone large in the stomach and soft in the head. His acerbic remarks on the 1996 Presidential election take into account Steve Forbes' primary campaign, the non-candidacy of General Colin Powell, the comings and goings of Dick Morris, Senator Bob Dole's triumphant return to television as a pitchman for Air France, the building of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Potemkin village in Iowa, and the sublime vacuity of President Clinton's inaugural address. A previously unpublished and substantial concluding piece looks at the fate of indolent ruling classes through history.