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.
John:
Holland Cotter, “World War I — The Quick. The Dead. The Artists.” (New York Times)
François Hartog and Jacques Attali, « Que peut-on encore prédire ? » (La Grande table, France Culture)
Louise Hidalgo talks with Martin Palouš on the signing of Charter 77 (BBC World Service)
Andreas Isenschmid, »Das wahre Leben ist die Literatur« (Zeit)
Thomas de Monchaux, “A Beacon in Berlin” (New Yorker)
Oliver Pfohlmann, »Briefauswahl als innere und äußere Biografie« (Deutschlandfunk)
Janet Todd, “Living and breathing politics” (TLS)
Adam Tooze, “A General Logic of Crisis” (LRB)
Ingeborg Waldinger, »Unteilbare Menschlichkeit« (NZZ)
Uwe Justus Wenzel, »Subjektivität, Metaphysik und Moderne« (NZZ)
And in honor of John Berger (1926-2017), the first episode of his television series “Ways of Seeing” (1972; YouTube)
Emily:
Historiann’s guide to surviving the Mile High #AHA17 (Historiann)
Philip Oltermann, Angela Merkel and the history book that helped inform her worldview (Guardian) (shoutout to our editor emerita Madeline, who sent this to me)
Madeleine Schwartz, It doesn’t tie any shoes: Shirley Jackson (LRB)
Marina Warner, Anglo-Egyptian Attitudes (LRB)
Wesley Morris, Visiting the African-American Museum: Waiting, Reading, Thinking, Connecting, Feeling (NYT)
Mark Brown, Hidden gay British histories take centre stage 50 years after decriminalisation (Guardian)
Robert Saunders, 2016 and the Crisis of Parliaments (Gladstone Diaries)
Michael Waters, The Public Shaming of England’s First Umbrella User (Atlas Obscura)
Susan Harlan, Poems on the End of the Academic Semester (Hairpin)
Erin:
Margaret Anderson, “Why Can’t the US Decolonize its Design Education?” (AIGA)
Rebecca Onion “Five Fascinating Digital History Projects We Loved in 2016” (Slate – and I’m so  proud that the NYSL’s City Readers project made the list!)
Michael Melgaard, “Used and Unusual: The past, present, and future of Toronto’s antiquarian bookstores” (National Post)
Terry Eagleton, “Not Just Anybody” (LRB)
Darryl Pinckney, “The Genius of Blackness” (NYRB – the recent issues of the New York and London Reviews are worth perusing in full.)
On my nightstand: Jean Rhys, Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography, with an introduction by her editor, Diana Athill (Deutsch, 1980) and The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, edited by Eliot Weinberger, with translations by Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, David Hinton, William Carlos Williams, and Gary Snyder. This wonderful compilation shows the range of possible translations of a single poem, publishing or more translators’ interpretations side by side. (New Directions, 2003)
Eric:
Adam Tooze, “A General Logic of Crisis” (LRB)
Samuel Farber, “Lessons from the Bund” (Jacobin)
Daniel T. Rodgers, “What Next for Liberalism?” (Democracy)
Jules Simha, “Le laboratoire des politiques publiques” (La vie des idées)
Masha Gessen, “The Most Powerful Men in the World” (NYRB)
Sarah:
Martin Clark, ‘Roll Up, Roll Up … for A Transformational Journey into the Australian Constitution!’, (Opinions on High Court Blog)
Barack Obama, ‘The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform’, (Harvard Law Review)
Rebecca Onion, ‘Five More Compelling History Projects We Loved in 2016’, (Slate)
Kenneth Roth, ‘Barack Obama’s Shaky Legacy on Human Rights’, (Foreign Policy)
Gabriel Winant, ‘Birth of an Imperial Nation’, (The Nation)
Disha:
Achille Mbembe, “The age of humanism is ending” (Mail and Guardian)
Joshua Rothman, “Ted Chiang’s Soulful Science Fiction” (The New Yorker)
Courtney Skye, “First Nations decline invite to Canada 150 event, cite onerous task of washing hair during Boil Water Advisory” (CBC Comedy)
Sam Spurrell, “Indigenous Erasure in Plain Sight: Place Names in New England” (Intercontinental Cry)
Adam Tooze, “A General Logic of Crisis – Review of Wolfgang Streeck’s How Will Capitalism End?” (London Review of Books)
Yitzchak:
J.M. Coetzee, “A Great Writer We Should Know” (NYRB)
Pico Iyer, “What do We Know?” (New York Times, “The Stone”)
Moira Weigel, “Political Correctness: How the Right Invented a Phantom” (The Guardian)
Christy Wampole, “How to Live Without Irony (For Real This Time)”  (New York Times, “The Stone”)
Carolyn:
Michael McNay, “John Berger Obituary” (The Guardian)
Daphnie Merkin, “The Trauma of the Gift Child: The Memoirs of Holocaust Survivor Saul Friedländer” (Bookforum)
Nicholas Penny, “Blame it on His Social Life” (LRB)
Adam Tooze, “A General Logic of Crisis” (LRB)