Things Noted Here and There

Steven Hoch, the Russian historian and former provost at Washington State University, has been assigned to teach at the University's branch campus at Richland. There, he will teach a seminar on the Russian Revolution at an annual salary of $245,000. The department might have hired three full professors, five or six assistant professors, or a small army of adjuncts for that money. Hat tip.

Thomas Hegghammer,"Until the end of time," The National, 16 January, reviews Jean-Pierre Filiu's L'Apocalypse dans l'Islam, a study of the apocalypse in Sunni and Shia Islam since the 7th century.

"Inaugural Words: 1789 to the Present," NYT, 17 January, has a word cloud for every inaugural address since George Washington's first.

Michael Kammen,"Chagall, chronicler of a century's triumphs, terrors," Boston Globe, 18 January, reviews Jackie Wullschlager's Chagall: A Biography.

Matt Taibbi,"Flat N All That," New York Press, 14 January, takes aim at Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Especially recommended for connoisseurs of venom well delivered.