Things Noted Here & There

Clay Risen,"They need a hero," The National, 9 October, recalls the story of Hermann, an ancient chief who rallied German tribesmen to defeat the Roman army. This founding national myth was cherished until it was banished in the post-World War II era. What role might it play in Europe's post-national era?

Stephen Greenblatt,"How It Must Have Been," NYRB, 5 November, reviews Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall.

Joel Achenbach,"Washington: First in War, Peace -- and Accounting," Washington Post, 12 October, looks at current interest in digitizing the voluminous George Washington financial records.

Simon Callow reviews Michael Slater's Charles Dickens for the Guardian, 10 October.

Joshua Hammer,"The Girl in the Attic," NYT, 8 October, reviews Francine Prose's Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife.

Antony Beevor,"Hitler's Jaws of Death," NYT, 10 October, debunks recent rumors that the German dictator had defied death and escaped from Berlin.

Dwight Garner,"Back When Ramparts Did the Storming," and Jack Schafer,"Scoop," NYT, 6 and 8 October, review Peter Richardson's A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.

Michael Smerconish,"Did Bubba's Tapes Break the Law?" Daily Beast, 11 October, asks whether it was illegal to withhold knowledge of the Taylor Branch interviews from legal inquiry.