Mar 5, 2008

Wednesday Notes

by Cliopatria

Jack E. Davis,"UF hiring Mike Haridopolos - how galling," Orlando Sentinal, 29 February, is a University of Florida historian's reaction to the administration's arbitrary hiring of a well-connected legislator into a faculty position. See also: Margaret Soltan,"Olympians," University Diaries, 2 March.

Edward Rothstein,"Two New Shows Cast Light and Darkness on Early Cultures in the Americas," NYT, 5 March, reviews"The Ancient Americas," an exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum, and"Exploring the Early Americas," an exhibit at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Elesha Coffman,"Ain't Misbehavin'," Books & Culture, March/April, reviews Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.

Rosemary Hill,"From little acorns, nuts," Guardian, 1 March, reviews John Matteson's Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.

Jane O'Grady,"The law of unintended consequences," Guardian, 1 March, reviews George Makari's Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis.

David Marcus,"Memory as Homeland," Dissent, Winter, reviews George Konrád's The City Builder and A Guest in My Own Country: A Hungarian Life. Hat tip.

Adam Kirsch,"Obama Bests Clinton at Craft of Writing," NY Sun, 3 March, compares the two candidates as authors. Hat tip.

More Comments:

Ralph E. Luker - 3/5/2008

... which is simply to say that King's "I Have a Dream" or Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" or Washington's "Farewell Address" remain their texts, whatever we might subsequently discover about any degree of "borrowing" or ghost-writing in their composition.

Ralph E. Luker - 3/5/2008

Did you read the article? At least one of the candidates did use ghostwriter(s). Still, I think there's a real sense in which you are incorrect. The person who is credited as "author" of a partially or wholly ghost-written text has signed off on and gets credit for that text. If the writing lacks character or quality, that person gets the credit or blame for that fact.

Kelly Woestman - 3/5/2008

But do the candidates actually do all of the writing? Only then is it a valid comparison.