As even the most casual student of history knows, we won our independence from Britain a few hundred years ago, but that was only our political independence. For other things, we were still very much in the shadow of Europe, and for a long time we remained a young and self-conscious nation. We thought of ourselves as provincial, uncouth and uncultured. Our newly rich men had newly rich wives who couldn't wait to go to Europe to buy sophistication and perhaps a titled foreigner for a son-in-law...