Anthony Grafton, "Our Universities: Why Are They Failing?" NYRB, 24 November, reviews eight books on the subject.

Michael Prodger, "Lend us your Leonardo: how to make a blockbuster show," Guardian, 4 November, reports on the organizing of "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan," an exhibit at London's National Gallery.

Donald Rayfield, "Border Patrol," Literary Review, November, reviews Norman Davies's Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe.

In "Redefining the Right Wing," The New Inquiry, 3 November, Corey Robin and Daniel Larison debate Robin's claims about conservatism in his book, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin.

James Polchin, "Creative Class," Smart Set, 31 October, reviews "Picasso's Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition," an exhibit at Manhattan's Frick Collection.

Graham Hutchings, "Life of the Party," Literary Review, November, reviews Ezra F. Vogel's Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.