The Jeffersonian state, this book argues, which came to birth in the War of Independence, perished in the Civil War. . . . The root of the change is to be found in the destruction of the State unit. And, as a result of that destruction, power has largely shifted away from its nominal holders and passed into that of wealth. The United States are today a plutocracy . . . content, and even anxious, to allow the rich to order its life to the smallest...