Things Noted Here and There

AHA Convention Roundup: AHA Today, Chapati Mystery, CHE, Harper Academic, Historiann, History-ing, Inside Higher Ed, Notorious Ph.D., Rate Your Students*, Tenured Radical, and The Way of Improvement Leads Home.
*Clue to super-senior scholar who shows up at his three-paper panel without having submitted a paper to the commentator in advance, asks how much time he is allotted, and has his microphone ripped from his hands by the panel's moderator after talking for 40 minutes: it's time to retire.

David Hahn,"Origin of the specious," Guardian, 3 January, reviews Chris Lavers's The Natural History of Unicorns.

David C. Flatto,"The Great Eagle," Commentary, January, reviews Joel L. Kramer's Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds.

Barry Gewen,"The Man Who Discovered Oxygen (Maybe) and Gave the World Soda Water," NYT, 2 January, reviews Stephen Johnson's The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.

Gary Anderson reviews Piers Brendon's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 for the Washington Times, 4 January.

Adam Kirsch,"America, Amerika," NYT, 2 January, re-assesses Franz Kafka's Amerika on the occasion of a new edition of it.

Yani Goldstein,"The Making of a Mogul," WSJ, 27 December, reviews Kenneth Whyte's The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst.

Elaine Sciolino,"Reading Mom and Dad in Teheran," NYT, 2 January, reviews Azar Nafisi's Things I've Been Silent About: Memories.