Saturday Notes

Jay Winik,"Vladimir the Great," Washington Post, 2 September, compares Vladimir Putin with Catherine the Great. Hat tip.

Michael S. Sherry,"Gay Artists in Midcentury America," CHE, 7 September (subscriber only), looks at the importance of gay artists in a mid-20th century America that was very homophobic. The Larry Craig affair reminds Edward Renehan of what happened to Sumner Welles, shertaugh of what happened to Senator Lester Hunt*, and KC Johnson of what happened to Walter Jenkins.
*shertaugh gets Hunt's party wrong. He was a Democrat. Do you remember when Democrats were serious contenders in Wyoming?

Slate has published three jaw-dropping excerpts from Robert Draper's Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush:"An Oval Office Conversation," 4 September;"Maliki," 4 September; and"October-November Man," 5 September.

Nathanael Robinson,"Letter to a Future Historian," Europe Endless, 7 September, addresses the historian who will write the history of our time.