Jul 30, 2009

Modern History Notes

by Cliopatria

Jenny Diski,"All Eat All," LRB, 6 August, reviews Catalin Avramescu's An Intellectual History of Cannibalism, translated by Alistair Ian Blyth.

Michael Dirda,"Meeting of the Minds," Washington Post, 30 July, reviews Richard Holmes's The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science.

Hillary Mantel,"He Roared," LRB, 6 August, reviews David Lawday's Danton: The Gentle Giant of Terror.

Michael Cieply,"Civil War Fires Up Literary Shootout," NYT, 29 July, looks at the continuing feud between Victoria Bynum, the author of The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War, and John Stauffer and Sally Jenkins, the authors of The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded From the Confederacy. Most of the battles have been at Bynum's blog, Renegade South: histories of unconventional southerners, with occasional skirmishes at Kevin Levin's Civil War Memory.

Eric Hobsbawm,"C (for Crisis)," LRB, 6 August, reviews Richard Overy's The Morbid Age: Britain between the Wars.

Heller McAlpin,"Loving Albert -- a Portrait Born of Passion," Washington Post, 26 July, reviews Elizabeth Hawes's Camus, A Romance.

Nathanael Fick,"A Warrior Fighting the Wrong War," Washington Post, 26 July, reviews Bradley Graham's By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld.

Dwight Garner,"A Turning Tide in Europe as Islam Gains Ground," NYT, 29 July, reviews Christopher Caldwell's Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West.

More Comments:

Kevin M. Levin - 7/30/2009

I was more than happy to welcome Jenkins and Stauffer to respond to Bynum at my blog, Civil War Memory. I did so in the interest of fairness and in hopes of furthering the discussion. Both Jenkins and Stauffer hoped that their response would lead to a productive discussion.

You can imagine my disappointment, however, when I read their response. They attacked Bynum on a personal level and failed to adequately address her critique, which was done in a professional manner. The comments that followed from both Bynum and my readers offered a number of important observations and addressed numerous problems with their interpretation. Apart from a few comments from Jenkins the authors failed to engage my readers.

As far as I am concerned they have done themselves a huge disservice. I just recently finished reading their book and am convinced that it is fundamentally flawed. I encourage those interested in this subject to do themselves a favor and purchase Bynum's study.

Kevin at Civil War Memory