Things Noted Here & There

Stacey Patton, "Historians Face New Pressures to Track Ph.D.'s," Thomas Bender, "What's Been Lost in History," and Leonard Cassuto, "Making a Public Ph.D.," CHE, 12 February, look at the prospect for change in graduate programs in history.

William Fitzgerald, "Gods, emperors and insects," TLS, 23 January, reviews Andrew Feldherr's Playing Gods: Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and the politics of fiction.

Miranda Seymour, "If It Pleases Her Majesty," NYT, 10 February, reviews Trea Martyn's Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry, and Spectacular Gardens.

Troy Patterson, "No Hetero," Slate, 9 February, reviews Hanne Blank's "chewy piece of scholarship" Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality.

Kevin Levin, "The Battlefield as Classroom," Opinionator, 12 February, discusses battlefield trips in teaching.

Michelle Goldberg, "Awakenings," Nation, 7 February, reviews Jean H. Baker's Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion.

Anthony Heilbut, "Joseph Roth's Letters Reveal a Great Forgotten Writer," Daily Beast, 10 February, reviews Michael Hofmann, trans. & ed., Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters.

Timothy R. Smith reviews Sally Denton's The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right.

John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Spy? No. But a Communist Once? Yes." Washington Decoded, 11 February, is the latest argument in a long debate.

Steven Levingston, "Sex and political polarization," Washington Post, 10 February, reviews Nancy L. Cohen's Delerium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America.

Andrew Hacker, "We're More Unequal Than You Think," NYRB, 23 February, reviews Richard Wilkinson's and Kate Pickett's The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, Robert H. Frank's The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good, Thomas Byrne Edsall's The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics, and James Gilligan's Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others. See also: Alex Gourevitch and Aziz Rana, "America's Failed Promise of Equal Opportunity," Salon, 12 February.

Finally, Cliopatria sends condolences Robert and Robin Stacey of the University of Washington's history department. Their son, Marine Corps Sargent Will Stacey, was killed in Afghanistan on 31 January.