Things Noted Here & There

Simon Blackburn,"Whatever You Say," The Book, 12 July, reviews John Searle's Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization.

Joshua Glenn,"Shining a light on the way artificial light has changed our lives," Washington Post, 11 July, reviews Jane Brox's Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light.

Jonathan Yardley reviews Christiane Bird's The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West for the Washington Post, 11 July.

Debby Applegate reviews Geoffrey O'Brien's The Fall of the House of Walworth: A Tale of Madness and Murder in Gilded Age America for bookforum, June/August.

T. J. Stiles reviews Niall Ferguson's High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg for the Washington Post, 11 July.

Ian Thomson reviews Harvey G. Cohen's Duke Ellington's America and Robin D. G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original for the Telegraph, 9 July.