Last night, South Carolina's gubernatorial candidates debated how best to convince outsiders that South Carolina is not a backwards shithole. The libertarian—the libertarian!—agreed with the Democrat that ditching the Confederate flag would help. Nikki Haley disagreed, because FREE ENTERPRISE DISAGREES.

Michael Elsbury, a Baton Rouge police officer with 15 years on the force, resigned yesterday amid gathering pressure over text messages in which he fantasized about violence against "niggers" and "those African monkeys."

So a Cornell historian wrote a book about how slavery, rather than God, the Marlboro Man or Vince Lombardi, fueled America's capitalist development. But did you ever consider how nice some slaveowners were, Mr. Historian? Your Economist book reviewer did, and now he's getting torched on Twitter.