Things Noted Here and There
Dahlia Lithwick,"I Now Pronounce You Totally Confused," NYT, 5 September, reviews Susan Squires's I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage.
Joshua Muravchik,"Help is on the Way," WSJ, 21 August, and Robert D. Kaplan,"Feeling Flush and Doing Good," Washington Post, 7 September, review Gary J. Bass's Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention. Hat tip.
In a symposium on"The Gay Movement and the Left," with contributions by Bettina Aptheker, John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and others, Christopher Phelps,"On Socialism and Sex: An Introduction," New Politics, Summer, features a little known story in mid-20th century American sexual politics.
Michael Meyer,"Chinese Characters," NYT, 5 September, reviews Liao Yiwu's oral histories, The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China From the Bottom Up, translated and with an introduction by Wen Huang.
Mills Kelly,"Making the History of 1989," edwired, 27 August, introduces the Center for History and New Media's most recent project, Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.
Current American politics under the fold ...
David Frum,"The Vanishing Republican Voter," NYT, 5 September, argues that Republican economic policy has undermined the Republican political base, as centers of economic inequality have become centers of Democratic voting strength.
David Eaves and Taylor Owen,"Progressivism's End," Literary Review of Canada, September, sees in Barack Obama's candidacy a reflection of the rebirth of progressivism throughout North America.