Mencken opens by imagining George Washington alive today, whisky-drinking, profane and hounded by the professional patriots. Brief numbered essays follow on the reward of the artist, the burden of humour, moral indignation, Richard Strauss’s Elektra, democracy, religion and more, each one designed to puncture a pious American assumption.
Mencken in miniature, gleefully contrary and very funny; some of his generalisations about races and nations are the prejudices of 1918. Download the free EPUB.