"Great Obituaries," The Browser, 2011, is a roundup of gems in the year's Anglo-American press.

Aram Bakshian, Jr., "Hard-Headed Idealist," WSJ, 13 October, reviews Richard Brookheiser's James Madison.

Libby Copeland, "Are Americans Secretly Homesick?" Slate, 12 October, reviews Susan J. Matt's Homesickness: An American History.

Jackson Lears, "American Oracle," Commonweal, 21 October, reviews John Patrick Diggins's Why Niebuhr Now?

Michael Dirda reviews The Letters of Samuel Beckett: II, 1941-1956, edited by George Craig, et al., for the Washington Post, 12 October.

Daphne Merkin, "Shades of Gray," bookforum, Sept/Nov, reviews Nell Casey, ed., The Journals of Spalding Gray.

John B. Judis, "No Confidence," The Book, 13 October, reviews Ron Suskind's Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President.