Nov 10, 2011

Notes on Contemporary History

by Cliopatria

Jennifer Schuessler, "Ranking History's Atrocities by Counting the Corpses," NYT, 8 November, features the work of the ultimate amateur, Matthew White, his The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities, and his website. He's won praise from Harvard's Charles Maier and Steven Pinker. Scott McLemee, "Under the Sign of Saturn," IHE, 9 November, reviews Teofilo R. Ruiz's The Terror of History: On the Uncertainties of Life in Western Civilization.

Jed Perl, "Islam Without Politics," TNR, 9 November, reviews the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new "Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands."

Christopher Benson reviews Darryl Hart's From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism for Books & Culture, 8 November.

Adam Kirsch, "The Art of Making Art," Tablet, 9 November, reviews Stephen Sondheim's Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011). With Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes, and Miscellany.