Dec 30, 2011

Friday's Notes

by Cliopatria

Mary Beard, Mike Dash, Helen Castor, John Morrill, and Timothy Garton Ash recommend the "Best of FiveBooks on History," The Browser, 29 December.

Colin Burrow reviews Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began for the Guardian, 23 December.

Suzanne Gamboa, "Scholars want help identifying slaves' origins," Guardian, 29 December, examines the project of Emory's David Eltis, York's James Walvin, and others.

Bernard Porter reviews Haia Shpayer-Makov's The Ascent of the Detective: Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England for the Guardian, 23 December.

A. N. Wilson, "P. G. Wodehouse, the writing-machine with a tragic twist," TLS, 29 December, reviews Sophie Ratcliffe, ed., P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters.

Michael Dirda, "Arguably Hitchens," TLS, 21 December, reviews Christopher Hitchens's Arguably.

Jackson Lears, "A History of Disappointment," LRB, 5 January, reviews Sally Jacobs's The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father and Janny Scott's A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother.