Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- A GENIUS FOR CONFLICT: The Life of British Politics -- Sketches of MPs -- The BBC Attitude to Politics -- In Defence of Ordinariness -- On the Comforts of Anger -- Evolution of a Term: The Establishment -- Chips of Memory -- A Volcanic Flash: Winston Churchill -- THE LAST, BEST HOPE FOR MANKIND: American Space and Time -- A Cheer for American Imperialism -- In Defense of Big Government -- Let the Convention Be ''a Brawl'' -- The Importance of Bathtubs: Fairlie at Large -- Mencken's Booboisie in Control of GOP: Fairlie at Large -- The Voice of Hope: Franklin D. Roosevelt -- My America! -- If Pooh Were President: A Tory's Riposte to Reaganism -- Migration: Washington Diarist -- Citizen Kennedy -- The Idiocy of Urban Life -- Merry FAXmas: Washington Diarist -- Greedy Geezers -- Brief Whining Moments: The Collapse of Oratory -- Pen Ultimate -- Spurious George -- Perrier on the Rocks -- An Evening with Hooter -- THE HARLOT'S PREROGATIVE: Writers and the Press -- Necessary Weapons -- Press Against Politics -- Magnates, Mischief, and Mass Circulation -- How Journalists Get Rich -- A Radical and a Patriot: Randolph Bourne -- Tory Days: George F. Will -- When Challenger Fell from the Sky -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.