Books: 400 Kaput

WHO KILLED SOCIETY? (599 pp.)—Cleveland Amory—Harper ($6.50).

The metamorphosis of the cads, or how the nouveaux riches become the Old Guard, is the central theme of Cleveland Amory's misleadingly titled Who Killed Society? The forms of Society die, but Society is indestructible. After every major upheaval—war, depression or graduated income tax—the cry arises that Society is not what it used to be, and Amory divertingly traces this plaint all the way back to the landing of the Mayflower. That sacred vessel, reports Amory. carried a nondescript list of lower-middle-class passengers, plus a sprinkling of...

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