Things Noted Here & There

Jane Black,"Cooking Up a Pot of Civilization," Washington Post, 12 July, reviews Richard Wrangham's Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human and Tom Standage's An Edible History of Humanity.

Gordon Wood,"Revolutionary Manners," TNR, 1 July, reviews Eric Slauter's The State as a Work of Art: The Cultural Origins of the Constitution.

Mickey Edwards,"A wide-ranging and clear-eyed examination of the history of American conservatism," Boston Globe, 12 July, reviews Patrick Allitt's The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History.

Farewell to Kenneth M. Stampp, 1912-2009.

Tim Rutten for the LA Times, 8 July, Phyllis Filiberti Butler for the San Francisco Chronicle, 12 July, and Benjamin Schwartz for the Atlantic, July/August, review Kevin Starr's Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963.

Susan King,"Lena Horne biography tells of a star shaped by rejection, racism," LA Times, 6 July, and Dave Wiegand for the San Francisco Chronicle, 8 July, review James Gavin's Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne.