I've posted a couple of items recently (here and here) about the renewed relevance in these painful economic times of Robert McElvaine's classic collection of letters written to FDR, Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. On Friday, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer aired a wonderful segment featuring McElvaine and his book, incorporating some footage from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (the 1939 Frank Capra film starring James Stewart, Jean Arthur, and Claude Rains). McElvaine ultimately calls for a reconsideration of the 20th-century American value of conspicuous consumption: [I]t...