Things Noted Here & There

Kenneth J. Cooper,"The Lost Script," Boston Globe, 10 January, is about Ajami, a script whose recovery may be a key to understanding much of Africa's pre-modern history. Our colleague, Jonathan Reynolds, finds the article"a bit hyperbolic in the lack of use of or attention to Ajami. I studied Hausa in Ajami at BU in the early 1990's... using contemporary Hausa books and newspapers that were printed in the script."

Megan Marshall,"Return of the King," NYT, 8 January, reviews Jenny Uglow's A Gambling Man: Charles II's Restoration Game.

Hillel Halkin,"Indecent Proposal," TNR, 9 January, reviews Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People, trans. by Yael Lotan.

"Intellectuals and Their America," Dissent, Winter, is a symposium, featuring contributions by E. J. Dionne, Jr., Alice Kessler-Harris, Jackson Lears, Martha Nussbaum, Katha Pollitt, Michael Tomasky, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Leon Wieseltier.

Adam Liptak,"More Perfect," NYT, 8 January, reviews Seth Lipsky's The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide and Jack N. Rakove, ed., The Annotated U. S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Jack Rakove reviews John Yoo's Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush and the Washington Post, 10 January.

Gary Gallagher reviews John Keegan's The American Civil War: A Military History for the Washington Post, 10 January.

Thomas Mallon,"Helen Gahagan Douglas, Hollywood Liberal," NYT, 7 January, reviews Sally Denton's The Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan Douglas.

David Holloway,"Houston, We Have a Problem," NYT, 8 January, reviews Wayne Biddle's Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race.

John Heilemann & Mark Halperin,"Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster," New York Magazine, 9 January, is an excerpt on the demise of the John Edwards campaign from Heilemann's & Halperin's new book, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. My ... my ...