Things Noted Here and There

Zade,"The Last Moghul and the First Empress: Part I - Vultures, Part II - Within Their Grasp, Part III - Moment in the Sun," BlogCritics, 20 May, responds to William Dalrymple's The Last Moghul.

Daniel Trotta,"U. S. History Enjoys a Renaissance," Reuters, 30 May, looks at the current popularity of narrative history.

H-South is discussing the exact wording and original source of James Louis Petigru's 19th century claim that South Carolina is"too small for a Republic and too large for an insane asylum." At the least, it is one of those things that ought to have been said.

Lee Smolin,"The Other Einstein," NYRB, 14 June, reviews Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe and Jürgen Neffe's Einstein: A Biography.

John Harris,"The Empire Strikes Back," Guardian, 3 June. Niall Ferguson flays Alan Bennett and promotes his four Cs:

History has to be contentious (eg Empire); it must explain the contemporary (as with his 2005 book Colossus); it has to consider the Counterfactual (in the manner of 2003's Virtual History); and it needs to computerise the past.

Finally, historian/columnist Eric Alterman was arrested in Manchester, NH, last night for refusing to leave an area of the spin-room at the Democratic debate to which he hadn't been invited. After being told to leave several times by police, he was handcuffed, taken from the building, and charged with" criminal trespass." Atrios has Alterman's account of the arrest.

Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tips.