Lisa Rein,"Mystery of Va.'s First Slaves is Unlocked 400 Years Later," Washington Post, 3 September, discusses the work of John Thornton and other historians in identifying the first African slaves in British North America.

Richard Brookhiser,"John Adams Talks to His Books," NY Times, 3 September, reflects on Adams' marginalia. From Zoltan Haraszti's John Adams and the Prophets of Progress (1952) to this month's exhibit at the Boston Public Library,"John Adams Unbound," historians have found a key to the second president's mind in scribblings in the margins of books in his personal library. The link in Brookheiser's article is misleading, but soon you'll find the marginalia from Adams library here.

Alan Cooperman,"An Old Battle's Fresh Wounds," Washington Post, 3 September, looks at controversies about Robert N. Rosen's Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust and the Coral Ridge Ministry's documentary film"Darwin's Deadly Legacy" and its companion book, Evolution's Fatal Fruit: How Darwin's Tree of Life Brought Death to Millions.

American University historian, Alan Litchman, who blogs at POTUS, is a candidate for the United States Senate from Maryland. In"Letter from a Baltimore County Jail," 1 September, he explains why he is in the slammer after being excluded from a major televised public debate prior to the state's Democratic primary election. King, I suspect, he's not, but here are a background story and a photograph of Lichtman's arrest. Thanks to Jon Dresner for the tip.

Finally, Michael Bérubé is being very naughty. And then there's this. And Scott Eric Kaufman wins fame and gets the vapors.