Friday's Notes

This afternoon, authorities of Antioch University will hand ownership of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, over to an independent continuing corporation of College alumni. It expects to re-open Antioch College in September 2010.

Jill Ross reviews The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture by Jerrilynn D. Dodds, Maria Rosa Menocal and Abigail Krasner Balbale for the THES, 3 September.

Deborah D. Rogers reviews Audrey A. Fisch's Frankenstein: Icon of Modern Culture for the THES, 3 September.

Philip Smallwood reviews Fred Inglis's History Man: The Life of R. G. Collingwood for the THES, 3 September.

Edward Glaeser,"What A City Needs," TNR, 4 September, reviews Anthony Flint's Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City.

Allan M. Winkler reviews David Kushner's Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb for the THES, 3 September.

Jean Edward Smith,"Roosevelt: The Great Divider," NYT, 2 September, summons President Obama to partisan reform. James Surowiecki's"It's Easier to Start from Scratch," New Yorker, 3 September, argues that it was easier to start with a blank slate than it is to reform an existing, but clearly broken, system.