Mr Menand tells a plausible story about the growth and importance of pragmatism in American thought and he does so without knockdown arguments.

ECONOMIST: How the pragmatists changed the way Americans thought

It's simply the human instinct to seek links and fill in the details of a plausible story to make it whole and coherent.

BBC: Go Figure: Are we related?

Even if a plausible-sounding story can be told about how some piece of behavior would have helped early hunter-gatherers survive and reproduce, it may well have become established earlier and for different reasons.

NEWYORKER: It Ain��t Necessarily So

Mr Obama tells a more plausible but equally deceptive story.

ECONOMIST: The economy and the election