WASPs and the Lost Art of Civic Space

Law firms are places of furtive intellectual conversation. In the intervals of negotiating the acquisition of a kitty-litter company by a private equity firm, or in the tedium of drafting a brief for the bank in its suit against a defaulting debtor, the questions will slip out. Did Hamilton throw away his first fire in the duel with Burr? Which was your favorite Trollope novel? Why did Dr. Johnson say to Adam Ferguson, “Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig?”