Friday's Notes

Zenobia Jacobs and Richard G. Roberts,"Human History Written in Stone and Blood," American Scientist, July/August, argues that"two bursts of human innovation in southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age may be linked to population growth and early migration off the continent."

Harvey Mansfield,"Consequential Ideas," WS, 22 June, reviews Paul Rahe's Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville and the Modern Prospect.

Peter Parker,"Is Toad of Toad Hall bipolar?" TLS, 24 June, reviews two new annotated editions of Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows.

Richard Overy,"Ice-Cold in Coyoacan," Literary Review, June, reviews Bertrand M. Patenaude's Stalin's Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky.

Dwight Garner,"Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic," NYT, 25 June, reviews Thomas Maier's Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love.

Jawed Naqvi,"Get the homing pigeons back," Dawn, 25 June, wonders about technical progress and our sources of news.