Modern History Notes

The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition has just announced that Columbia University's Christopher Leslie Brown is the winner of this year's Frederick Douglass Prize for his book, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism. The book has also won the AHA's James A. Rawley Prize.

Joshua Foer,"Remember This," National Geographic, November, looks at the extremities of memory loss and memory retention. Hat tip.

William Grimes,"The Dictator as a Young Poet-Thug," NYT, 19 October, reviews Simon Sebag Montefiore's Young Stalin.

Thomas Mallon,"Rocket Man," New Yorker, 22 October, reviews Michael J. Neufeld's Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War.

Christopher Phelps,"Father of History," Nation, 5 November, (subscriber only) takes another look at Bettina Aptheker's recovered memory in her memoir, Intimate Politics, that her father, Herbert Aptheker, had sexually abused her in childhood.

Paul Harvey,"Gospel Truth," WSJ, 19 October, explores the complex history of 20th century American gospel music.