Nov 13, 2008

Thursday's Notes

by Cliopatria

Dr. Denny,"The Gray Lady turns pasty white: Is the financial demise of The Times at hand?" Scholars & Rogues, 11 November, looks at the NYT's balance sheet. The picture looks grim. Hat tip.

Bruce Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, announced yesterday that he will leave in January to become President and CEO of a new museum and research facility, the American Revolution Center, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Hat tip.

Joan Nathan,"A Short History of the Bagel," Slate, 12 November, reviews Maria Balinska's The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread.

Janet Maslin,"Elites and Rivals, Beware: He's Tough as Old Hickory," NYT, 9 November, reviews John Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.

Amos N. Jones,"The First Black Congressmen," Books & Culture, November/December, reviews Philip Dray's Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen.

David Flusfeder reviews Russell Miller's The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle for the Telegraph, 12 November.

Bruce Kuklick,"The State and Its Servants," Books & Culture, November/December, reviews Alex Abella's Soldiers of Reason: The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire and Michael Dobbs's One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War.

Finally, reviewing Alex Beam's A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, Robert K. Landers,"Learning for Everyone," WSJ, 10 November, says that you might better spend time with Dwight Macdonald's"The Book-of-the-Millennium Club," New Yorker, 29 November 1952. And you can look forward to Tim Lacy's work on the Great Books movement.

More Comments:

Jeremy Young - 11/14/2008

Does the book talk about the "Great books curriculum" that was implemented (and remains to this day) at the two St. John's Colleges by Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, two of the Great Books Series editors?

Jonathan Dresner - 11/13/2008

I have fond memories of the Great Books only because -- and I hope this makes it into the history of the movement -- my middle school and high school both had Great Books clubs. I was that sort of child, yes.

The middle school one read mostly modern short stories that weren't in the Great Books at all -- "Harrison Bergeron" and "The Lottery", "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner."

The High School club read abbreviated and edited texts, available in a similarly numbing uniform package. I remember bits of Tacitus, the Declaration of Independence, and a few other things.

Tim Lacy - 11/13/2008

I'll go and read Landers' review. I have a feeling I know where this is going, however, as I had some pre-publication contact with the author in question. - TL

Ralph E. Luker - 11/13/2008

Tim, Landers doesn't seem to think that Beam has left you with nothing important to say about the subject!

Tim Lacy - 11/13/2008

Dear Ralph,

Thanks for the mention on my forthcoming history of the great books idea, although I must confess that my work has slowed considerably due to a job change (I now work here---the page does not yet reflect my being part of the team).

Yours,

Tim