Things Noted Here and There

"The History Major and Undergraduate Liberal Education" is a report by a National History Center working group chaired by Stan Katz and Jim Grossman. Scott Jaschik's"A Broader History Major (and Professor)," IHE, 27 October, hits the highlights.

Lawrence A. Husick,"From Stone to Silicon: A Brief Survey of Innovation," FPRI's Wachman Center for International Education Newsletter, October, offers a list of the top 25 innovations in human history, from relativity and quantum mechanics at #25 to _______ at #1.

Gordon Wood,"American Unions," TNR, 22 October, reviews Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.

Alexandra Mullen,"Eminence Without Irony," WSJ, 21 October, reviews Mark Bostridge's Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon.

Michael Dirda reviews Timothy W. Ryback's Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life for the Washington Post, 26 October.

Donna Rifkind,"Native Speaker," Washington Post, 26 October, reviews Ariel Sabar's My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq.

Finally, our colleague, KC Johnson, has created a website to accompany his book, All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, which is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. If you want to sample the delicious sources KC had to draw on, try LBJ's telecon with Congressman Albert Thomas (D-Texas), ca January 1964 (2nd call, scroll down) or his telecon with Bill Moyers during the Democratic National Convention, 21 August 1964 (1st call):"... even a goddamned college professor could understand that."