Blogs > Cliopatria > Midweek Notes

Jan 5, 2011

Midweek Notes


by Cliopatria


Caitlin Flanigan,"The Hazards of Duke," Atlantic, Jan/Feb, exposes shameful conditions for women at my alma mater.

Claire B. Potter,"Fumbled Interview Questions," IHE, 5 January, is a must read for job candidates at this week's AHA convention.

Ulinka Rublack,"Renaissance Fashion: The Birth of Power Dressing," History Today, 21 December, by the author of Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe, argues that purposive appearance began in Renaissance Europe.

Gatekeeping the Gatekeeper: In 30 years, Gordon Wood has published nearly 45 review/essays in the New York Review of Books. All but eight of them are still behind its firewall. It's no surprise that the NYRB puts his review of Jill Lepore's The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History there. TNR has also put his review of Pauline Maier's Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 behind its firewall. That inhibits intelligent discussion, but William Hogeland at Hysteriography says his first impression is that Wood's review of Lepore is"almost fantastically, even goofily, unfair" and Larry Cebula comments that"Wood seems to envision himself as a gatekeeper to the academic history clubhouse. Let's not tell him about history blogging." J. L. Bell of Boston 1775 has set up a Facebook discussion board of Wood's review of Lepore. See also: John Fea at The Way of Improvement Leads Home and Paul Harvey's reading of the whole review in a comment there.

Toril Moi reviews Ibsen's"The Master Builder," which is in production at London's Almeida Theatre.

Adam Kirsch,"Nowhere Man," Tablet, 4 January, reviews Lev Loseff's Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Biography.


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More Comments:

Manan Ahmed - 1/5/2011

That Lepore/Wood seems perfect for a clio symposium. Also the review is terrible.

William Hogeland - 1/5/2011

There'll always be an England.

Chris Bray - 1/5/2011

The U.K.? Never heard of it -- sounds terribly obscure.

Ralph E. Luker - 1/5/2011

Pardon my saying so, but it sounds to me as if some British academics need to get out in the world more often.

George Ross - 1/5/2011

I do not think one needs to worry about this review. No one in my department in the U.K. had heard of Gordon Wood and only two could recall Brown University.

William Hogeland - 1/5/2011

Thanks for mentioning my blog post on this matter. I should note that my "first impression" was of Wood's whole review: I read it in print. Agree that online discussion is being inhibited by the NYRB firewall -- then again, that journal is key and needs subscribers!