Thursday's Notes

Matthew Price,"Written in blood: the history of the Spanish conquistad," The National, 4 February, reviews the second volume of Hugh Thomas's trilogy on the Spanish empire, The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V.

Myron Magnet,"James Madison and the Dilemmas of Democracy," City Journal, Winter, seeks Madison's vision of American democracy.

John Connelly,"In Sheep's Clothing," The Book, 8 February, reviews Hubert Wolf's Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich.

Dana Gioia,"Wherever Home May Be," WSJ, 5 February, Phoebe Connelly,"Revisiting Elizabeth Bishop," bookforum, 8 February, and Dwight Garner,"Fighting The New Yorker Over Extra Commas and Steaming Cowflops," NYT, 8 February, review Elizabeth Bishop, Poems, Bishop Prose, and Joelle Bielle, ed., Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence.

Steve LeVine,"The Trouble With Contrarianism," The Book, 9 February, reviews Daniel Treisman's The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev.