Swain has interviewed 67 reporters on 16 metropolitan dailies in 10 cities — from cubs to veterans — who talk candidly […]

For Mr. Madison the caucus was unanimous, but there was a difference with regard to the Vice-Presidency, then filled by the aged George Clinton of New York, who represented the anti-Virginian wing of the party in power. Mr. Calhoun, in a set speech, opposed the renomination of Governor Clinton, on the ground that in the imminency of a war with England the Republican party ought to present an unbroken front.

The editor of perhaps the most widely read magazine issuing from the metropolis was recently asked, “Is your magazine read much in New York city itself?” / “Oh, yes,” he answered, “but we are more popular in the United States.” The answer was indicative. New York is not American. It is merely New Yorkian. And the New Yorker is beginning to know it and to regret it.

This book puts forward a clearer understanding of Diderot's perplexities by taking into account the dynamics of his thought processes, especially the mode, peculiar to him, of thinking via contrarieties.