Sunday Notes

Sharon Howard announces the launch of The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913, over 200,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court, now fully searchable. See, here are my English cousins, the Lukers. Rowdy lot. Amelia Hill,"Old Bailey opens its unseen files," Guardian, 27 April, covers the announcement.

Margaret Drabble,"Poor Dorothy Wordsworth," TLS, 23 April, reviews Frances Wilson's The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth.

Anne Applebaum,"Better Read Than Red," Slate, 26 April, recommends"the best recent books about Communism," but you can start with primary sources: Marx/Engels: Collected Works.

"Appraiser appraised," Economist, 17 April, and Tim Rutten,"The Fate of Nations," LA Times, 23 April, review Tony Judt's Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century.

Richard D. Kahlenberg,"Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 40 Years Later," CHE, 25 April, revisits the struggle over local control of public schools in New York City. At TPM Café, 23 April, Jim Sleeper argues that Barack Obama can learn from Kahlenberg's insights to shift from supporting race-based to class-based affirmative action. In fact, he's already made that shift. Thanks to Evan Goldstein for the tip.

Finally, Sam Wineberg's"Goodbye, Columbus," Smithsonian, April, interprets results of his survey of American high school students for the most famous people in American history – excluding presidents and first ladies.