Things Noted Here and There

Allen Guelzo,"Good Democrats and Bad Democrats," Claremont Review, Summer, reviews Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. This tough review by a talented critic reminds me of the criticism I gave to one of Guelzo's early articles. Fifteen years later, after he'd won the first of his two Lincoln Prizes, I told him that I appreciated the fact that he was" capable of growth." It was a condescending thing to say, of course, but better than"incapable of growth." Thanks to Tom at Big Tent for the tip.

In Policy Review, Peter Berkowitz reviews Gordon Wood's Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different; Henrik Bering reviews Richard Holmes, Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750–1914, and David Gilmour, The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj; and Ethan J. Lieb reviews Kwame Anthony Appiah's Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. Thanks to Alfredo Perez at Political Theory Daily Review for the tip.

The AP and CNN report the findings in the FBI's file on Arthur Miller. As Eric Muller points out, for those who weren't around at the time, the biggest news is probably that Marilyn Monroe had converted to Judaism for the wedding ceremony.

Simon Jenkins,"Under the Afghan Sun, a Dark New Reality is Taking Shape," London Times, 18 June, assesses the situation in Afghanistan on the eve of NATO's assumption of responsibility there under British leadership. Thanks to Taylor Owen for the tip.

Finally, that subject has come up, again, over at Kevin Drum's Political Animal. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Republican Party could elect presidents of the United States without carrying any Southern states for, oh, about a century. But no Democrat has ever been elected president of the United States without being competitive in the South, i.e., without carrying at least five Southern states. Ignore the South and you start having to have delusions about Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho.