William Grimes,"Why the Strongest Armies May Lose the Newest Wars," NYTimes, 18 January, reviews General Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World.

Tim Lacy's"U. S. Intellectual History: A Call to Action," History and Education: Past and Present, 17 January, was also posted at H-Ideas and gets at thoughtful response from Martin J. Burke, co-editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas at Lacy's blog. I'm entirely sympathetic with Lacey's cause and delighted to see that Burke offers practical advice.

Princeton's Anthony Grafton is Burke's co-editor of the JHI and it appears to me that he was featured at the Inaugural Meeting of the Athanasius Kircher Society at CUNY on Tuesday. Now, how cool is that? If he keeps this up, intellectual history is the wave of the future.

In case you hadn't heard yet, the American presidential campaign for 2008 is already on. I know that because my virtual son, Chris Richardson, has just signed on with the John Edwards campaign to blog for – ahem – pay. Sure enough, here he is. Already, one of his blog entries seems likely to appear in an LA Times article on South Carolina and the black vote.