Here's a piece from yesterday's Wash. Post that's perfectly timed for our 
recent/on-going discussion on Conn Yankee:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090403802.html?referrer=emailarticle

Henry Nash Smith's book on CYankee, Mark Twain's Fable of Progress, left a 
strong impression on me when I first read it, and it still does seem to 
hit the nail on the head.  Smith's book, one of (few) literary studies 
that endures, might be old but it's not out of date, like the Twain book 
it examines.  Smith's book is sub-titled, Political and Economic Ideas in 
A Connecticut Yankee.

Terry Oggel