Ross Douthat,"Right Wing Academics Need New Ideas: Bill of Wrongs," TNR (registration required), 24 May, is one of the best analyses of the conservative critique of academe that I've seen. It tackles cliches, exposes the flaws in strategic plans, and summons conservatives to the real work of academic communities, the life of the mind. Thanks to Graham Larkin for the tip.

John Gray reviews Peter Watson's Ideas: From Fire to Freud for the New Statesman. Gray says that intellectual history is a distinctly modern enterprise and finds in Watson's example a vast scope and erudition that ranges comfortably across eastern and western boundaries. In the Guardian, Watson's"We've Got No Idea: History Shows That True Innovation Has Disappeared From Our Society," argues that the last half century has been far less innovative than many other periods in human history.

Women's Writing, XII, 1 (2005) is a special issue on Women Writing History. Among other articles, it features Miriam Burstein's"Reviving the Reformation: Victorian Women Writers and the Protestant Historical Novel."

At Frog in a Well, Jon Dresner notes that as many as 60 Japanese veterans of World War II settled in the Philippines and survived there under the protection of the Moro Liberation Front. It could be an interesting finding, especially if they were involved in training the Moros for resistance.