Western Civ Notes

Mary Beard,"What made the Greeks laugh?" TLS, 18 February, reviews Stephen Halliwell's Greek Laughter: A study of cultural psychology from Homer to early Christianity. In"Byzantium and Prince Charles," A Don's Life, 20 February, Beard chats about attending the opening of"Byzantium, 340-1452" at London's Royal Academy of Art.

Eric Ormsby,"The Islamic Enlightenment," WSJ, 14 February, reviews Jonathan Lyons's The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization and John Freely's Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe through the Islamic World.

Brian Vick,"Backstage at the Revolution," THES, 19 February, reviews Victoria Johnson's Backstage at the Revolution: How the Royal Paris Opera Survived the End of the Old Regime.

Alex Ross,"The Youngest Master," New Yorker, 23 February, looks at celebrations of the Felix Mendelson bicentennial. Move over Darwin and Lincoln.

Harold Shukman reviews William I. Hitchcock's Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1945-1950 for the THES, 19 February.