Modern History Notes

Fred R. Shapiro,"Anonymous was a Woman," Yale Alumni Magazine, Jan/Feb, finds lines by women often attributed to famous men or to the most prolific of all writers, anon. Hat tip.

Jonathan Yardley,"Rebel slaves, silenced," Washington Post, 30 January, reviews Daniel Rasmussen's American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt. Yardley ends by condemning"special pleading" about western expansion that Rasmussen must have learned from Harvard's history department.

Steve Oney reviews Lawrence Goldstone's Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903 for the LA Times, 30 January. Hat tip.

Michelle Goldberg,"The Enthusiast," The Book, 31 January, reviews Leigh Eric Schmidt's Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr and Madwoman.

Serena Golden interviews Istvan Hargittai, the author of Judging Edward Teller for IHE, 31 January; and Deborah E. Lipstadt,"Simon Wiesenthal and the Ethics of History," Jewish Review of Books, Winter, reviews Tom Segev's Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends.

James Traub,"The War Presidents," NYT, 28 January, reviews Stephen L. Carter's The Violence of Peace: America's Wars in the Age of Obama.

Farewell to Ron Patterson, the father of 20th century American medieval and renaissance festivals.