Modern History Notes

In light of the job market, Anthony T. Grafton and Jim Grossman, "No More Plan B," Perspectives, October, calls for a revision of graduate programs in history. There's further discussion at Scott Jaschik's "‘No More Plan B'," IHE, 3 October, including comments by the President of the MLA and Vice President of the ACLS.

Robert M. Solow, "Working in the Dark," TNR, 28 September, reviews Sylvia Nasar's Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius.

Karen Winkler, "David Blight's New Approach to Civil War Memory," CHE, 28 September, interviews Blight about his new book, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era.

Francis Beckett reviews Peter Day's Franco's Friends: How British Intelligence Helped Bring Franco to Power in Spain for the Guardian, 30 September.

In Larry McMurtry, "The Rick Perry Hustle," NYRBlog, 1 October, and Christopher Benfey, "Mitt, We Hardly Knew Ye!" NYRBlog, 3 October, residents of Texas and Massachusetts look at the governors who appear to be the leading Republican candidates for POTUS.

Daniel Soar, "It Knows," LRB, 6 October, reviews Douglas Edwards's I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59, Steven Levy's In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives, and Siva Vaidhyanathan's The Googlisation of Everything (and Why We Should Worry).