Dec 5, 2009
Weak Endnotes
From the blogs:
Garry Wills,"Afghanistan: The Betrayal," NYRblog, 2 December, declares his alienation from Obama's leadership. Hat tip.
Michael Tomasky's"Cornel West among the crickets," 2 December, pays due tribute to Scott McLemee's"Decline of the West," IHE, 2 December.
From the news and reviews:Bruce Bower,"Controversial Signs of Mass Cannibalism," Wired, 4 December, features evidence of central European cannibalism in 5500 to 5000 BCE.
Carolyn See,"The potentate of potions," Washington Post, 20 November, reviews Adrienne Mayor's The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy; and See,"Mad about English: The age-old language struggle," WP, 4 December, reviews Jack Lynch's The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of"Proper" English from Shakespeare to"South Park".
Frederic Raphael,"Man For All Seasons," Literary Review, December, reviews Sarah Bakewell's How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer.
Jeet Heer,"From Irish Simian to Homer Simpson," sans everything, 1 December, tracks the half-life of an ethnic stereotype in American popular culture. Hat tip. Michael Wood,"A Lot of Travail," LRB, 3 December, reviews Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton, eds., The Letters of T.S. Eliot Vol. II, 1923-25.
Liam Julian,"Putting Fowler Back in Fowler's," Policy Review, December/January, reviews H.W. Fowler and David Crystal, ed., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage.
Paul Levy,"Un-American Pete Seeger," Guardian, 27 November, reviews Alec Wilkinson's The Protest Singer: An intimate portrait of Pete Seeger.
Jim Newton reviews Joan Biskupic's American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for the LA Times, 30 November. Niall Ferguson,"An Empire at Risk," Newsweek, 28 November, argues that economic distress could destroy the United States.
From the news and reviews: