Modern Confrontational Notes
Jonathan Yardley reviews Stephen Budiansky's The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox for the Washington Post, 27 January.
Michael Sims,"Beyond Baker Street," Washington Post, 27 January, reviews Andrew Lycett's The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, eds., Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters.
Charles McGrath,"Il Miglior Fabbro," NYT, 27 January, reviews A. David Moody's Ezra Pound: Poet, A Portrait of the Man and His Work. Volume I: The Young Genius, 1885-1920.
The BBC reports that Erich Kaestner, who is thought to have been the last German veteran of World War I, has died at 107. There is uncertainty about survivors because Germany does not keep official tracking records of its veterans of World War I and World War II. Thanks to Alan Allport for the tip.
Mindy Aloff,"All in the Family," Washington Post, 27 January, reviews Charlotte Mosley, ed., The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters.
Randy Kennedy,"The Capa Cache," NYT, 27 January, notes the recovery of Robert Capa's photographs of the Spanish Civil War that were long thought to have been lost.
Michael Kazin,"Dancing to the CIA's Tune," Washington Post, 27 January, reviews Hugh Wilford's The Mighty Worlitzer: How the CIA Played America.
David Wise,"Spy vs. Spy," Washington Post, 27 January, reviews Pete Earley's Comrad J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy In America After the End of the Cold War.
Sean Wilentz,"Obama's Misuse of History," LA Times, 26 January, concludes that:"Historians cannot expect all politicians and their supporters to know as much about American history as, say, John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for a work of history." It took some cheek for Kennedy to accept a Pulitzer Prize for a ghost-written book and takes some nerve to attribute great historical knowledge to him for it. Hat tip to Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory.