A Pleasant Institution

A Pleasant Institution is the memoir of John S. Monagan, who details the experiences of eight decades of the century from 1911 to the present. He tells the story of a modern Connecticut Yankee and his life as a lawyer, mayor, congressman, author, athlete, and scion of a family prominent in New York City for 250 years. Whether describing the curious protocol observed in a Prohibition-era speakeasy, the Olympic presence of Harvard Law professors in the 1930s or the mood of a White House ball during the Bay of Pigs crisis, this book is full of vivid characters and memorable events.