Now and then, a shadow of anxiety is seen to cross the broad, luminous face of American democracy. Was the Revolution a social mistake after all? Should Benjamin Franklin have gone to the French court in a wig instead of his own egalitarian hair? Was it really such a good idea to get rid of George III and Lord North? Given the uninflected worship of money that marks the 1980s, it is no wonder that the spectacle of privilege enjoying its own toilette has become America's hottest cultural ticket. Thus Lord Marchmain of Brideshead becomes the Blake Carrington of the American...
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