The Marquis de Morès (1858-96) was a man of many abilities, but balancing a chequebook was not one of them. This is not so much Carlyle’s ‘great man’ theory as ‘A History of Europe in 100 Foibles’. Was Morès the single pivot on which European history turned? Morès viewed the Badlands as a space to resurrect a feudal order where he was the lord, the cowboys were his serfs and the law was irrelevant. One can only deplore the way Luzzatto lets the air out of his tyres in the service of the truth.