The convergence of the Christian Feast Day of the Transfiguration and the Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima is, what, appropriate? cruel irony? merely coincidental? At Catholic Literary Renaissance, Linda Robinson posts this poem by Pavel:

AUGUST 6, 1945

O my soul, created to enjoy such exquisite gifts, what are you doing, where is your life going? How wretched is the blindness of Adam's children, if indeed we are blind to such a brilliant light and deaf to so insistent a voice. - St. John of the Cross

The Day of Christ's Transfiguration
Hiroshima: Obliteration
Love's unending deathless day
War's delirious display
Grace of glory praised aloud
An ionizing mushroom cloud
Visions of the mortal blessed
Eyes of death made manifest
The hill of Golgotha foretold
Adam's skull made manifold

Expedience of war or state
Death our character, our fate
Cross of wood or bombing plane
The blood of Abel, mark of Cain
Light from light the Son of God
Revealed beneath His flesh and blood
Light unsullied and unbroken
Of which our sunlight is a token
Disfiguration of the soul
Transfigure, Lord, and make us whole

Pavel, August 5, 2005

An Irregular Affair:

Kevin Mattson, Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University, is the most recent in a series of academics to debate David Horowitz about the"Academic Bill of Rights" at Front Page Rag.

Two regular affairs:

As Manan Ahmed indicates, he is assuming responsibility for Cliopatria's Symposia. Our third symposium will focus on Akira Iriye's"Beyond Imperialism: The New Internationalism," which appeared recently in Daedalus. Cliopatricians participating in the symposium should send their contributions to manan*at*uchicago*dot*edu. He will post them here on Monday 8 August. Other history bloggers who want to participate in the symposium should send him a link to your contributions on your own blogs. There will be plenty of opportunity, of course, to participate in discussion of the symposium in comments here, as usual.

If you haven't yet done so, go visit The Cranky Professor who is hosting the premier rendition of as an ancient and medieval history festival. One of its great joys is that the Cranky One introduces us to some excellent history blogs which you may not have yet seen and, among them, you can just put Carl Pyrdum's Got Medieval down on your sidebar as one of the great history blogs.

Two recommendations from A&L Daily:

Maggie Gee reviews Louis Barnes's biography, Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg, for the New Statesman. We've long known that Alexander Pushkin was the great-grandson of an African slave in the court of Peter the Great. Only now, says Gee, has a biographer fully explored the story of Gannibal.

Louis Menand,"Missionary: Edmund Wilson and American Culture," New Yorker, 8/15 August. Two biographies of Edmund Wilson will be published this year. If you don't plan to read either of them, read Menand's essay.