At The Club

A few years back, in a New Yorker cartoon, a father dolefully told his son that “we WASPs have no tribal wisdom to pass on.” In fact, WASPdom’s most durable contribution to American society (next to our system of government) may well be the country club. And as John Steele Gordon says at the outset of his lively history, “No ethnic group capable of developing a social institution as durable, adaptable, and now universal as the country club could be wholly lacking in tribal wisdom.” While the country club is, happily, no longer the sole domain of one class and race, the idea itself—that within every little democrat there resides a little aristocrat—continues to spread comfort, charm, and, of course, a considerable measure of resentment and irritation.