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:
Shameless self-promotion: I’m participating in a wonderful event at Brown’s Humanities Center on Thursday, featuring Princeton English Professor Jeff Nunokawa discussing his new book. If you’re in the Providence area, come along!
Timothy Burke, On the Eating of Lotuses (Easily Distracted)
Jack Grove, new Warburg Institute director outlines plan to stop ‘slide into obscurity’ (THE)
Colm Tóibín, Ravishing Sex Lives of the Castrati (LRB)
Nathaniel Rich, The Very Great Alexander von Humboldt (NYRB)
G.W. Bowersock, Who Was Saint Paul? (NYRB)
Martin Filler, The Rush of Berlin (NYRB)
Kate Thomas, Telling God what he already knows: how to pray like an 11th-century monk (For the Wynn)
Glen Newey, Porridge in the Panopticon (LRB)
In classical languages news, the London Times is now running a Latin crossword (Classics Collective)
Also, some very clever members of the University of Auckland Classics Society have translated “Mamma Mia” into ancient Greek, with excellent results
And, greatest of all, Spencer Lenfield, Confessions of a Wimpy Latinist (Eidolon)
Jonathan Healey, Taylor Swift… and the English Reformation! (The Social Historian)
And of course, Mallory Ortberg, Things Men in Literature Have Died From, Code Words for Spinster Throughout History, The Abductions of Ganymede, in Order of Abduction, and My Plan for Surviving as Queen Anne’s Lesbian Companion (The Toast)
John:
Pierre Assouline, « Claude Lévi-Strauss révélé dans une ‘biographie japonaise’ » (La République des livres)
G.W. Bowersock, “Who Was Saint Paul?” (The New York Review of Books)
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, »Mitten in der Schwarmphase« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Michaël Foessel, “Critique and communication: Philosophy’s missions—A conversation with Jürgen Habermas” (Eurozine)
Luca Illetterati, “Immagini politiche. Sull’ultimo libro di Carlo Ginzburg” (Le parole et le cose)
Ivan Jablonka, « La notion de vérité fait partie de nous : Entretien avec Carlo Ginzburg » (La vie des idées)
Tim B. Müller, »Jenseits des Traumlands« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Tim Parks, “The Mystery of Primo Levi” (The New York Review of Books)
Hans-Martin Schönherr-Mann, »Geschichte der geistigen Revolution der 68er« (Deutschlandfunk)
Holger Schulze & Dominique Silvestri, »Les Goncourts antisémites: Ein Jahr mit den Goncourts (X)« (Merkur Blog)
And finally, Adam Tooze and Johann Chapoutot on « La Grande guerre et l’émergence de l’Empire américain » (Rendez-vous de l’histoire de Blois)
Madeline:
G. W. Bowerstock, “Who was Saint Paul?” (NYRB)