Modern History Notes

Christopher Hitchens,"The Revenge of Karl Marx," The Atlantic, April, re-evaluates Marx, in light of the current economic crisis.

Dwight Garner,"In Chicago, Real Estate and Race as a Volatile Mix," NYT, 17 March, reviews Beryl Satter's Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America.

Benjamin Ivry,"The Private Barthes," CHE, 20 March, reviews Roland Barthe's journals, Système de la mode (The Fashion System), L'Empire des signes (Empire of Signs), Fragments d'un discours amoureux (A Lover's Discourse: Fragments), Journal de deuil (Bereavement Diary) and Carnets du voyage en Chine (China Travel Notebook), translated by Richard Howard.

Anne Applebaum,"A ‘Beacon Light' Into Black Sites," Slate, 16 March, calls for application of the rule of law in the torture inquiry.

Last night, I attended Emory's celebration of the publication of The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Volume I, 1929-1940. The volume is reviewed here. Salman Rushdie, Edward Albee, and others read excerpts from the letters. This letters project has been twenty years in the creation, with three more volumes to go. If what I heard is any sign of things to come, it is well worth the wait.