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 Smith's book, one of (few) literary studies that endures, might be old but it's not out of date, like the Twain book it examines.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