Sunday's Notes
Robert Darnton,"A Republic of Letters," NYT, 20 August, reviews Lewis Hyde's Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership.
Tom Segev,"‘View With Favor'," NYT, 20 August, reviews Jonathan Schneer's The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
Stacie Williams for the Christian Science Monitor, 18 August, and Lynell George for the LA Times, 22 August, review James Baldwin's The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings, Randall Kenan, ed. Both reviewers conclude with Baldwin's reply to Robert Kennedy's comment that one day a black man could be president."What I am really curious about," Baldwin replied,"is just what kind of country he will be president of?"
Linda Robinson,"Christians and Muslims," NYT, 19 August, Christopher Caldwell,"Where Islam and Christianity Collide," Slate, 22 August, and Michael Mewshaw for the Washington Post, 22 August, review Eliza Griswold's The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam.
Robert Alter,"The Sense of An Ending: Remembering Frank Kermode," TNR, 21 August, remembers a distinguished literary critic; and Timothy Garton Ash,"Tony Judt (1948–2010)," NYR Blog, 20 August, remembers a distinguished historian.