Here are a few interesting articles and pieces we found around the web this week. If you come across something that other intellectual historians might enjoy, please let us know in the comments section!
Emily:
In premodern cultural history news:
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Sex and the Church, 3. Christianity v The West (BBC iPlayer – UK IP required)
At the British Library, The Paston Letters Go Live, a huge collection of sources on life in fifteenth-century Norfolk, now digitized (BL Medieval Manuscripts Blog)
12th-century text revealed as oldest non-Biblical document from Scotland (Guardian)
Ian McGilchrist, A Matter of Trust, on the philosophy of belief (LARB)
William Grimes, ‘A Night of Philosophy’, 12 Hours of a Mental Marathon (NY Times)
G.W. Bowersock reviews Peter Brown: Money and Your Soul (NYRB)
In historiography and pedagogy news:
The latest in History Manifesto news: Johann Neem, “The Publics of History: A Report on the National History Center’s Discussion of The History Manifesto (AHA blog)
Linda Kerber ponders herself as an historical subject: Archiving My Life (Chronicle)
Claire Potter, Teaching Baltimore, Teaching the History of American Violence (Chronicle)
Ferdinand Mount, Back to Runnymede: why should we care about Magna Carta? (LRB)
Terence Brown, Poets and the Peacock Dinner, by Lucy McDiarmid, review of what looks like a fascinating new literary history (Irish Times)
Perry Link, The Wonderfully Elusive Chinese Novel (NYRB)
In classics news:
Edith Hall, Sensual Sappho (NYRB)
The Paideia Institute (full disclosure – friends) have launched a new magazine for modern perspectives on the ancient classics (Eidolon)
Mallory Ortberg, Paintings of Women Riding Aristotle Like a Pony (The Toast)
Princeton English professor Jeff Nunokawa (full disclosure – a friend) has published an exciting and original new book! If you’re in New York you can catch him talking about it at the Strand bookstore on May 6.
And, not least, you can take in the very bizarre spectacle of Ann Widdecombe pretending to be a Victorian street-cleaner: 24 Hours in the Past (BBC iPlayer – UK IP required)
Madeline:
The Trollope Bicentenary:
Michael Caines, “Trollope at 200” (TLS Blog)
Michael Gopnik, “Trollope Trending” (New Yorker)
William Dalrymple, “The Great and Beautiful Lost Kingdoms,” reflections on the Met Museum’s two most recent exhibitions on Indian Buddhism (NYRB)
Joan Acocella, “Fox News” (New Yorker), a review of James Simpson’s new translation of William Caxton’s Middle English Reynard the Fox, an animal epic where immorality reigns.
Erik Kwakkel, “Medieval Name Tags,” explores a collection of orphans’ name tags in 15th-century Leiden (medievalbooks)
John:
Neal Ascherson, “On the Via Dolorosa” (LRB)
Jéremie Barthas, « Norbert Elias et l’Utopie » (La vie des idées)
Paul Chemetov, « Le Corbusier fut-il fasciste ou démiurge ? » (Le Monde)
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, »“Herrlich volklicher Wille.” Was zeigt sich in Heideggers “Schwarzen Heften”?« (FAZ)
Russell Jacoby, “The Object as Subject” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Thomas Kemple with Carla Nappi (interview), “Intellectual Work and the Spirit of Capitalism: Weber’s Calling” (New Books in Intellectual History)
Andreas Kilb, »Der letzte Werktag des Dritten Reiches« (FAZ)
David Nirenberg, “Power and Piety” (The Nation)
Alessandra Sarchi, “Ruskin a Venezia” (Le parole et le cose)
Nadja Tesich with Lucy McKeon, “Nadja à Paris” (NYR Gallery)
And finally, Georges Didi-Huberman with Marie Richeux on « Histoires de Fantômes pour Grandes Personnes » (YouTube)