More Noted Things

It's late to acknowledge the death of Leonard W. Levy, but he was a great constitutional historian. See: NY Times and tributes by Ronald K. L. Collins, Paul Finkelman and Jacob T. Levy.

Michael Bérubé, Max Blumenthal, and Tim Burke have found David Horowitz's ideological twin in Teheran. Given Davy's abandon of leftwing for rightwing bombast and demagoguery, is it too much to imagine that he may yet betray that zealotry to head"Islamofascism"'s American ministry of propaganda?

David Greenberg,"Help! Call the White House! How the 1927 Mississippi Flood Created Big Government," Slate, 5 September. Human and natural disaster drove the creation of big government in 20th century America. William Leuchtenberg pointed to mobilization for World War I as the major precedent for the New Deal. David Greenburg points to responses to the 1927 Mississippi Flood. Recalling both 9/11 and Katrina's devastation of the Gulf coast, it's daunting to recognize that both parties have accepted big government, that big government did far too little to prevent or prepare for disasters that recently devastated two American cities, and big government still mismanages recovery from them. [Ed.: That's Luker editorializing on Greenberg's article; not Greenberg's conclusions.]

Janny Scott,"9/11 Leaves Its Mark on History Classes," NYTimes, 6 September, notes many ways in which 9/11 has reshaped the teaching of American history.

Finally, from NYU and our You-Should-Be-So-Lucky Department:"Shakira's Hips Actually Remarkably Well Informed," Gawker, 6 September.