American History Notes

History Carnival XCVIII is up at H. Niyazi's Three Pipe Problem.

Thomas Bender, "The King's Men, After the American Revolution," NYT, 29 April, reviews Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World.

Nicholas Mancusi, "Our Founding Wordsmith," Daily Beast, 30 April, reviews Joshua Kendall's The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture.

Eric Foner, "Why the North Fought the Civil War," NYT, 29 April, reviews Gary W. Gallagher's The Union War.

Stefany Anne Golberg, "Taking the Plunge," Smart Set, 5 April, reviews "Take Me to the Water: Photographs of River Baptisms," an exhibit at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. See also: Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950, Dust-to-Digital, 2009.

Dwight Garner, "Sing It Loud: Changing the World With a Stirring Cri de Coeur," NYT, 28 April, and Sean Wilentz, "A History of Protest Songs," NYT, 29 April, review Dorian Lynskey's 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, From Billie Holiday to Green Day. The publication of Lynskey's book prompts The Nation to ask "What's the Best Protest Song?" Nominate your favorite's at the link.

James M. Lindsay, "TWE Remembers: The Fall of Saigon," Council on Foreign Relations, 30 April, draws three lessons from the American experience in Viet Nam.

Michael Kazin, "The Trouble With Independents," TNR, 26 April, provoked considerable debate. See: John Sides, "Independents are not a confused horde," The Monkey Cage, 26 April; John Chait, "The Irrationality of Independent Voters," TNR, 28 April; Sides, "On the Rationality or Irrationality of Political Independents," Monkey Cage, 28 April; Jon Bernstein, "Economic Voting is Rational," A plain blog about politics, 28 April; and Chait, "Kazin Proxy Fight, Round Three," TNR, 29 April.