Modern History Notes

Joseph Epstein, "What Killed American Lit.," WSJ, 27 August, reviews Leonard Cassuto, Clare Virginia Eby and Benjamin Reiss, eds., The Cambridge History of the American Novel. Benjamin Reiss, "Confessions of a Literary Barbarian," Slate, 27 September, is a reply by one of the editors.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, "The Sparkler of Albion: The Many Faces of Charles Dickens," Telegraph, 26 September, is based on Douglas-Fairhurst's new book, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist.

Jackie Wullschlager, "The Pre-Pre-Raphaelite," FT, 23 September, reviews "Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer," an exhibit at the Manchester Art Gallery.

Aaron Thier, "Dailiness in Extremis," The Book, 27 September, reviews Evelyn Juers's House of Exile: The Lives and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann.

Ann Doss Helms and Tommy Tomlinson, "Wallace Kuralt's era of sterilization," Charlotte Observer, 26 September, continues North Carolina's investigation into its 20th century sterilization practices.

Dave Itzkoff, "Dylan Paintings Draw Scrutiny," Arts Beat, 26 September, considers accusations that Bob Dylan's paintings in "The Asia Series," currently on exhibit in Manhattan's Gargosian Gallery, are derivative of photographs by others.

Andrew Anthony, "Steven Pinker: the optimistic voice of science," Guardian, 17 September, David Runciman for the Guardian, 22 September, Leon Neyfakh, "The decline of violence," Boston Globe, 25 September, James Q. Wilson, "Burying the Hatchett," WSJ, 1 October, Elizabeth Kolbert, "Peace in Our Time," New Yorker, 3 October, Sam Harris, "The End of World Violence?" Daily Beast, 3 October, and John Horgan, "Will War Ever End?" Slate, 3 October, review Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Pinker, "A History of Violence: Edge Master Class 2011," Edge, 27 September, summarizes the case made more fully in the book.