Sunday Notes
Bill Caraher teaches ancient history and historiography at the University of North Dakota and blogs at The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. He has a three part series on"Blogging Archaeology or the Archaeology of Blogging: Metablogging the Ancient World":
Part I, a short history of blogging and academic blogging in particular
Part II, a more focused examination of blogs on archaeology
Part III, a first attempt at an archaeology of blogging
Jerome Segal,"Reading the Bible Anew," Washington Post, 16 December, reviews James L. Kugel's How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, Karen Armstrong's The Bible: A Biography, and A. J. Jacobs's The Year of Living Biblically.
Paul Raffaele,"Keepers of the Lost Ark?" Smithsonian, December, investigates the longstanding claim of Ethiopian Christians that they are the custodians of the ark of the covenant.
Michael Gerson,"The Heart of Conservatism," Washington Post, 12 December, argues that modern conservatism was born in late 18th century England and, at birth, already had tensions between" conservatives of tradition and conservatives of moral passion." Thanks to Richard Jensen of Conservativenet for the tip.
Bookforum has a roundup of reviews in the popular press of recent books on the bitter fruit of World War I.
Mark Benjamin,"Inside the CIA's notorious ‘black sites'," Salon, 15 December, reports the experience of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a Yemini prisoner held by the CIA for 19 months and, finally, released without charges against him. Hat tip.