Playbill

January, 2005

In Imperial America, his new compilation of essays and articles (one of which first appeared in Playboy), Gore Vidal proceeds from the premise that the America Thomas Jefferson envisioned has faded. In this month's Jefferson vs. Hamilton, Vidal examines the Manichean battle for the American soul, which finds its basis in the diametrically opposed philosophies of Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. "We're caught between Hamilton and Jefferson," Vidal says. "That is the fault line, an...