Our colleague, Hugo Schwyzer, has been doing a little modest bragging about his syblings. Of particular interest to Cliopatria is the publication by his brother, Philip Schwyzer of the University of Exeter, of Literature, Nationalism, and Memory in Early Modern England and Wales.

As Andrew Sullivan notes, the debate about Abraham Lincoln's sexuality will be renewed in March when Free Press publishes C. A. Tripp's book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. Doug Ireland has a foretaste of it in the LA Weekly. Color me skeptical.

Phil Carter, who does a well respected blog called Intel Dump, has an important article in the Washington Monthly,"The Road to Abu Ghraib". He begins by saying that"A generation from now, historians may look back to April 28, 2004, as the day the United States lost the war in Iraq. On that date, CBS News broadcast the first ugly photographs of abuses by American soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison." Read the whole thing. Thanks to Abu Aardvark for the tip.

The competition for attention at History News Network is getting intense. Rebunk just won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Liberty & Power just welcomed Nicholasvon Hoffman as a guest blogger. They've also got some new mystery blogger over there named"Tex" who no one seems to know. I ‘spose that if a family gets large enough, there may be someone in it you haven't actually met yet. But von Hoffman. Hmm. I'd forgotten just how sharp his tongue could be. What must Cliopatria do to keep up with all this competition? Win the Miss Collegiality Award at the AHA Convention in Seattle, maybe? Well, jeez, KC Johnson already almost lost tenure at Brooklyn College for not showing enough leg on that score! What if we recruit David Brooks? Probably not. He's occupying some real expensive real estate already and the recent reviews of his workaren't actually all that good. Christopher Hitchens, perhaps? Boy, has he learned to game the system! He figured out that you can get a royalty from the Nation by endorsing Bush; and a royalty from Slate by endorsing Kerry! (Tip o' the hat to Jim Lindgren at Volokh) Is Hitchens the original flip-flopper or is it Christopher/drunk v Hitchens/sober? If it's the latter, which is which? And, as for the competition at HNN, let's ponder that ...