Modern History Notes

Michael Kenney,"Romance and murder in 18th-century Boston," Boston Globe, 9 December, and Carolyn See,"Colonial Farce in Beantown," Washington Post, 12 December, review Jane Kamensky's and Jill Lepore's Blindspot, By a Gentleman in Exile & a Lady in Disguise.

Matthew Price,"Watching the sun set on the great British empire," Boston Globe, 10 December, reviews Piers Brendon's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997.

Edward Rothstein,"Reconsidering the Man From Illinois," NYT, 11 December, reviews"One Life: The Mask of Lincoln," an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Caleb Crain,"Pixies, Sheilas, Dirtbags and Cougar Bait: Modern Slang," The Nation, 10 December, reviews John Ayto and John Simpson, eds., Stone the Crows: Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, and Tom Dalzell, ed., The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English. See also: Crain,"Attack of the Kittenheads," Steamboats are ruining everything, 11 December.

Michael Kazin,"The Sit-Down Strike Returns! Now What?" TAP, 11 December, reflects on how labor action and political support now differs from it in the 1930s. Hat tip.