Modern History Notes

Janet Maslin,"When Poets Were Scientists and Nature Their Mysterious Muse," NYT, 8 July, reviews Richard Holmes's The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science.

Peter D. Smith reviews Philip Hoare's Leviathan or, The Whale for the TLS, 10 July. Hoare's book won this year's BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction.

David Miller,"Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Telegraph, 7July, recalls the novel's extraordinary hold on its readers and Achebe's troubling criticism of it.

Suzy Hansen,"Importance of elsewhere," The National, 3 July, reviews Magdalena J. Zaborowska's James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile.

Errol Morris,"McNamara in Context," Xoom, 7 July, looks back on the career of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He was featured in Morris's film,"The Fog of War," which won a Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2004. Morris also received a Cliopatria Award for Best Series of Posts in 2007.