Frances Wilson reviews Elizabeth Abbott's Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman for the Telegraph, 12 December.

Hasok Chang,"The Hidden History of Phlogiston: How Philosophical Failure Can Generate Historiographical Refinement," HYLE: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, December, rethinks the rejection of phlogiston theory. Hat tip.

Leah Price,"American Girl," NYT, 10 December, reviews Susan Cheever's Louisa May Alcott and Richard Francis's Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia.

Robert M. Utley,"A Sioux War Chief and His Many Enemies," WSJ, 27 November, and David Treuer,"Tricked, trapped and defeated," Washington Post, 12 December, review Thomas Powers's The Killing of Crazy Horse.

Pankaj Mishra,"Staying Power," New Yorker, 23 December, reviews Patrick Wright's Passport to Peking: A Very British Mission to Mao's China, Frank Dikötter's Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962, and Timothy Cheek, ed., A Critical Introduction to Mao.

Joshua Hammer,"Before Sainthood," The Book, 13 December, reviews David James Smith's Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years.