Saturday Notes
rachel's"bookporn #17: a Northern Song imperial gold & jade ritual book, National Palace Museum, Taipai," a historian's craft, 24 August, features a text from China's Northern Song dynasty (ca 1080 CE)."... the book is made of pale green-white jade; it's tied together with gold wire rather than rope or twine; and the words are carved into the jade and FILLED IN WITH GOLD." Its words were once a highly privileged secret. Now, they are displayed for the world to see.
Philip Jenkins,"PBS and Historical Objectivity," Open University, 24 August, takes a critical look at a new PBS program,"Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Muslim Spain."
Ingrid D. Rowland,"The Enlightener," TNR, 23 August, reviews Johann Winckelmann's History of the Art of Antiquity. Hat tip.
Stevenson Swanson,"Don't care much about history?" Chicago Tribune, 19 August, looks at what Colonial Williamsburg and other"living history museums" are doing to get tourists' attention. Hat tip.
Robert K. Landers,"Martyrdom without End," WSJ, 18 August, reviews Bruce Watson's Sacco & Vanzetti.
Julie Englander,"Defending Strauss," Chicago Reader, 24 August, defends Leo Strauss in the face of charges that he is the father of neo-conservatism.
Dan Gibbard,"Supremacist's suit rejected by court," Chicago Tribune, 24 August, suggests that civil rights martyr Clyde Kennard's name is finally cleared.
Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tips. Eric Rauchway,"Freedom's False Ring," TNR, 22 August, reviews Ha-Joon Chang's Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism and John Gray's Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia. Finally, farewell to Grace Paley. Scott McLemee paid his respects in a review of Just as I Thought, Salon, 22 April 1998.