Midweek Notes

Abigail Tucker, "The Beer Archaeologist," Smithsonian, August, looks at Patrick McGovern's efforts to recreate the libations of the ancients. Dwight Garner, "Sticky Fingers, Used in Service of a Covetous Nature," NYT, 28 June, reviews Rachel Shteir's The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting. Jonathan Yardley reviews Ina Caro's Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History By Train for the Washington Post, 24 June.

Michael Sean Winters, "The Beltway Healing," The Book, 28 June, reviews Nancy Lusignan Schultz's Mrs. Mattingly's Miracle: The Prince, the Widow, and the Cure That Shocked Washington City. James M. McPherson, "What Drove the Terrible War?" NYRB, 14 July, reviews Amanda Foreman's A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War, Gary W. Gallagher's The Union War, David Goldfield's America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation, Adam Goodheart's 1861: The Civil War Awakening, and George C. Rable's God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War.

Christopher Hitchens, "The Real Mahatma Gandhi," Atlantic, July/August, reviews Joseph Lelyveld's Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India. Adam Kirsch, "Lost and Found," Tablet, 28 June, reviews Tara Zahra's The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe's Families After World War II. Peter D. Kramer, "The Great Proselytizer of Orgasm," Slate, 27 June, reviews Christopher Turner's Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America. Winston Groom, "Breakfast at Truman's," WS, 27 June, reviews William Todd Schultz's Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers.