Category: What We’re Reading

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 comment section.

Maddy:

Kirill Gerstein, “The Real Tchaikovsky” (NYRB)

Christopher Celenza, “Inside the Mind of Machiavelli” (Salon)

Daniel Mendelsohn, “Girl, Interrupted: Who Was Sappho?” (New Yorker)

Hanna Clutterback, “Why Digital Collections, Why Now?” (Center for the History of Medicine, Countaway Library)

Stephen Greenblatt, “Shakespeare in Tehran” (NYRB)

Christine Emba, “Critic’s Notebook for March 2” (New Criterion)

Heather Wolfe, “Early modern eyebrow interpretation” (The Collation, Folger Shakespeare Library)

John:

Olivier Alexandre, « Des médias de masse à la révolution numérique : entretien avec Fred Turner » (La vie des idées)

Hal Foster, “At the White Cube” (London Review of Books)

Adam Gopnik, “In the Memory Ward” (The New Yorker)

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, »Welchen Nationalismus brauchte die europäische Union?« (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

Robert Kahn, « Du trafic épistolaire entre Kafka et Milena » (La république des livres)

Matthew Lamb, “The Meeting that Never Was” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

Shaul Magrid, “Stuck between Berlin and Jerusalem” (Tablet)

Daniel Mendelsohn, “Girl, Interrupted” (The New Yorker)

Christoph Riedwieg, »Antike und Anthropologie. Zum Tod des Altphilologen Walter Burkert« (Neue Züricher Zeitung)

Marina Warner, “Learning My Lesson” (London Review of Books)

And finally, a wonderful conversation between Hannah Arendt and Günter Gaus (German with English subtitles)

Emily:

Stephen Jackson (ed.), Building a Textbook: a Conversation with the Authors of Britain Since 1688: A Nation in the World (NACBS)

Christopher Jones, What Isis Destroys, Why, and Why We Must Document It (HyperAllergic)

Glenda Sluga, Roundtable (History Workshop)

Gabriel Thompson, Burn After Reading (Harper’s)

Marina Warner, Learning My Lesson (LRB)

Libby Brooks, Remains from Glasgow School of Art Fire Revealed (The Guardian)

Robin Marie, Freedom Is Not a Chia Pet (USIH-Blog)

Here are a few interesting articles and pieces we found around the web this week. Please also note the newest issue of the Journal of the History of Ideas , and take a peek at the table of contents! If you come across something that other intellectual historians might enjoy, please let us know in the comment section.

John:

Élise Aurières, « Redécouvrir Émile Meyerson » (La vie des idées)

Marco Belpoliti (interviewer), “Umberto Eco. Come ho scritto i miei libri” (Doppiozero)

Ilja Braun, »Grundeinkommen statt Urheberrecht? Freiheit und soziale Absicherung im digitalen Zeitalter« (Merkur-Blog)

Guillaume Bridet, “Should the Enlightenment be Provincialized?” (Books and Ideas)

Andrew Butterfield, “He Brought Stone to Life” (NYR Gallery)

Jürgen Kaube, »Martin Heidegger: Die Alliierten – schlimmer als Hitler?« (FAZ)

James Livingston, “What Is Called History at the End of Modernity? (Part II)” (USIH Blog)

Eric Orsmby, “A Kingdom in Splinters” (The New Criterion)

Jürgen Ritte, »Ein Franzose im Ersten Weltkrieg« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

Émilien Ruiz, « Les historien-nes et le numérique : usages et besoins de formation » (La boîte à outils des historiens)

And finally, a wonderful collection of recordings from the ‘Gruppe 47’ meeting in Princeton, NJ in 1966 (including Peter Handke’s famous attack)

Emily:

Christopher Jones, Assessing the Damage at the Mosul Museum, Part 1 and Part 2 (Gates of Nineveh)

Inigo Thomas, Mediterranean Oaks (LRB Blog)

John Lanchester, The Robots Are Coming (LRB)

Andy Seal, The Premature Death of Thomas Carlyle (S-USIH Blog)

Stanley Wells, Shakespeare and the Struggle for Power (NYRB)

David Amsden, Building the First Slavery Museum in America (NY Times)

And, not least, Paul Collins, The 1906 Novel that Imagined Present-Day New York (New Yorker)

Madeline:

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, “Francis Agonistes” (New Republic)

Andrew Butterfield, “He Brought Stone to Life” (NYR Gallery)

Matthew McNauhgt, “Yarmouk Miniatures: Saadallah Wannous and the War on Stories” (n+1)

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!

Madeline:

Imaging techniques and illuminated manuscripts (University of Cambridge)

Jenny Uglow, “William Blake: Wonderful and Strange” (NYRB)

David Amsden, “Building the First Slavery Museum in America” (NYT)

David Shuman, “Inside the Hidden Temple” (NYR Gallery)

Jennifer Schuessler, “A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback” (NYT)

John:

Rémy Besson, « Imaginations historiennes » (La vie des idées)

Jacques Body, « Un titre problèmatique de Giraudoux » (La République des livres)

Robert Huddleston, “ ‘Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’: W.H. Auden’s Struggles with Politics” (Boston Review)

Interview with Daniel Immerwahr, “Thinking big … and small about U.S. history in a global context” (Toynbee Prize Foundation)

Interview with Tim Lacy on The Dream of a Democratic Culture: Mortimer J. Adler and Great Books Idea (New Books in Intellectual History)

James Livingston, “What is Called History at the End of Modernity?” (S-USIH blog)

Jürgen Osterhammel, »Meist siegte das Bedürfnis nach Rache« (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

Knox Peden, “What Is to Be Done?” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

Jennifer Schuessler, “A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback” (NY Times)

Jenny Uglow, “William Blake: Wonderful and Strange” (NYR blog)

And finally, »Die Sprache lügt nicht: Die Tagebücher von Victor Klemperer« (Arte, 2004; German-language video)

Emily:

Alan Ryan, The Dangers of Patriotism (NYRB)

Eran Zelnik, I am a presentist—and so is Gordon Wood (USIH-Blog)

Leo Benedictus, Why did Turkey invade Syria to dig up the grave of Suleyman Shah? (Guardian)

Marc Parry, Classicists Crunch Data to Test Hypotheses About Greece (Chronicle)

Samuel Moyn and Andrew Sartori, What is Global Intellectual History – If It Should Exist At All? (Imperial & Global Forum)

Jenny Uglow, William Blake: Wonderful and Strange (NYRB)

Maev Kennedy, Henry VIII’s evidence to support break with Rome turns up in Cornish library (Guardian)

Jennifer Schuessler, A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback (NY Times)

David Parrott, Sad Century: The 17th-Century Crisis (LRB)

Here are a few interesting articles and pieces we found around the web this week (with occasional significant overlap …). If you come across something that other intellectual historians might enjoy, please let us know in the comments!

Madeline:

Tom Goodwin, “How do Historians Write?” (Doing History in Public)

Anthony Grafton, “Scrawled Insults and Epiphanies” (NYRB)

Joyce Chaplin, “Climate History is the ‘Room of Requirement’” (Uncommon Sense)

Paul Needham, Princeton rare books gift (NPR)

John:

Helga Arend, »Der unbekannte Klassiker« (Literaturkritik.de)

Karoline Döring, »Ausstellungsbesprechung: „Welten des Wissens. Die Bibliothek und die Weltchronik des Nürnberger Arztes Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514)“ (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München)« (Mittelalter Blog, Hypotheses.org)

John Foot, “Una delle “meraviglie del mondo”: l’assemblea generale” (Minima & Moralia)

Anthony Grafton, “Scrawled Insults and Epiphanies” (NYR Gallery)

Martha Hodes, “They Have Killed Our Good President” (Salon.com)

Uli Hufen, »Sozialistische Gefühls-Achterbahn« (Deutschlandrundfunk)

Randy Kennedy, “Two New Cézanne Works Discovered by Barnes Foundation Museum” (NY Times)

Marylin Maeso, « La tendre indifférence du monde » (La Vie des idées)

Tino Markworth, »Zum Sinn des Lebens in der Aufklärung« (Literaturkritik.de)

Hans-Jörg Neuschäfer, »Als ob ein neuer Dante live aus der Hölle berichtete« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

And finally, a rather strange video featuring Jean Hyppolite, Georges Canguilhem, Paul Ricœur, Michel Foucault, Alain Badiou, and Dina Dreyfus in conversation (Vimeo)

Emily:

Mark Greif, What’s Wrong With Public Intellectuals? (Chronicle)

Frank Bruni, Higher Education, Liberal Arts, and Shakespeare (NY Times)

Maev Kennedy, Guide to Pleasures of Georgian London Acquired by Wellcome Collection (Guardian)

Andrew Mytelka, Princeton Receives $300-Million Bequest of Rare Books (Chronicle)

Dinah Birch, The Iron Way: Family History (LRB)

Katherine Angel, The Love of a Philosopher (History of Emotions Blog)

Anthony Grafton, Scrawled Insults and Epiphanies (NYRB Blog)

Sebastian Matzner, The History of Sexuality (Exeter Guild – Research Uncovered )

Alice Spawls, But She Read Freud: Flora Thompson (LRB)

And, not least, 100 Actual Titles of Real Eighteenth-Century Novels (The Toast)

Madeline:

Francine Prose, “The Case for Hollywood History” (NYRB)

Darryl Pinckney, “Some Different Ways of Looking at Selma” (NYRB)

Juan-Jacques Aupiais, An Interview with P. Adams Sitney (Nassau Literary Review)

Jonathan Wilson, Bernard Cooper on art and life (LARB)

Rhiannon Ash, “How to write a Roman life” (TLS)

Richard Wightman Fox, “A Body for the Body Politic“: Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Succession (Slate)

Matthew Wills, A brief history of Valentine’s Day (JStor Daily)

John:

Pierre Assouline, « Louable nostalgie de la République des Lettres » (La République des livres)

François Dubet, « La laïcité et son autre » (La vie des idées)

Mark Greif, “What’s Wrong with Public Intellectuals?” (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Duncan Kelly, “Why Max Weber matters” (Times Literary Supplement)

Francisca Loetz, »Verflixt und verflucht!« (Neue Züricher Zeitung)

Rossella Menna, “Carissimi padri della Grande Guerra” (Doppiozero)

Samuel Moyn, “Did Christianity Create Liberalism?” (Boston Review)

Helmut Müller-Sievers, »Dekonstruktion im Rückspiegel« (Merkur-Blog)

Gilberto Perez, “A Day in the Country: Jean Renoir’s Sunday Outing” (Criterion Current)

Andy Seal and the rest of the USIH bloggers on Saul Bellow this week (USIH Blog)

And finally, on the occasion of the (long-overdue) English-language publication of François Hartog’s great book Régimes d’historicité : Présentisme et expériences du temps (Le Seuil, 2002), an interview with a leading theorist of history and wonderful historian (in French; Vimeo).

Emily:

Ben Kafka, Pushing Paper (Lapham’s Quarterly)

Annie Burman, A Pale Imitation: the new Turing biopic is a far cry from the fascinating truth (King’s Review)

Richard Evans, Why are we obsessed with the Nazis? (The Guardian)

Clerk of Oxford, ‘Unwinding the water’s chains’: Spring, Thaw, and Some Anglo-Saxon Poems (A Clerk of Oxford)

Alison Flood, Inflame her to venery with wanton kisses: the joy of sex, 1684-style (The Guardian)

Leland de la Durantaye, Who Whips Whom: Sade (LRB)

Stefan Collini, Whisky Out of Teacups: David Lodge (LRB)

Mo Moulton, Watching Downton Abbey with an Historian: Queer Downton! (The Toast)

Jonathan Downing, Review – Blake, Apprentice and Master, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Southcottian Studies)

And, not least, Lauren Davis, Ten Things People Once Complained Would Ruin the English Language (io9)

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!

Emily:

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Man to Know in Ancient Rome (New Yorker)

Mitch Smith, Historians Sift the Ruins for Ferguson’s Legacy (NY Times)

Robert D. McFadden, Carl Djerassi, 91, a Creator of the Birth Control Pill, Dies (NY Times)

Claire Potter, Virtually a Historian: Blogs and the Recent History of Dispossessed Academic Labor (Historical Reflections/Academia.edu)

The Secret World of Lewis Carroll (BBC, UK IP required)

Margery Kempe at Candlemas (A Clerk of Oxford)

Kathy L. Gaca, Review: Alan Kaiser, Archaeology, Sexism, and Scandal: The Long-Suppressed Story of One Woman’s Discoveries and the Man Who Stole Credit for Them (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)

Steph Thompson, Bushwick Storefront a Model School (Huffington Post)

Erin Schreiner, Mark Up Your Books (But Please Don’t Mark Ours) (New York Society Library)

Rebecca Onion, An Anti-Suffrage Children’s Book From 1910, Mocking “Baby” Activists (Slate)

Nicholas B. Dirks, Why I Miss the Culture Wars (Chronicle)

John:

Julie Allard, “Ronald Dworkin: Law as Novel Writing” (Books and Ideas)

« La vie en société : une improvisation » (entretien avec Howard Becker; La vie des idées)

Marco Belpoliti, “Primo Levi e La notte dei Girondini” (Doppiozero)

Ian Hampsher-Monk, “How to Think Like Edmund Burke” (Foreign Affairs)

Alice Kaplan, “Camus Redux” (The Nation)

Grégoire Kauffmann, « Michelet, l’antidépresseur » (L’Express)

Michael Pilz, »Der Philologe als Kritiker« (literaturkritik.de)

Ute Sacksofsky, »Glaubensfreiheit – ein Grundrecht nur für den religiösen Mainstream?« (Merkur)

Alain Claude Sulzer, »Das zweibändige Paar. Die Goncourt-Brüder und ihr Journal« (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

Gisela von Wysocki, »Wo bitte bleibt der Eros?« (Zeit)

Finally, the first part of a 1983 documentary “Primo Levi: Back to Auschwitz” (English and Italian; Youtube)

Madeline:

Listening on the Edge: Oral History after Crisis (OUP Blog)

Matthew Kirschenbaum, What is an @uthor? (LARB)

John Kovach, on the changing music curriculum (Chronicle)

Upcoming conference: Literature and Theology in Early Modern England (CRASSH, University of Cambridge)

Steph Thompson, Bushwick Storefront a Model School (Huffington Post)