Nigel Cliff, "The Reign of Venice," NYT, 27 January, reviews Roger Crowley's City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas. Matthew Price reviews Norman Davies's Vanished Kingdoms: The Lives and Afterlives of Europe's Lost Realms for The National, 28 January.

John B. Hattendorf, "The War Without a Loser," WSJ, 28 January, reviews George C. Daughan's 1812: The Navy's War and Brian Arthur's How Britain Won the War of 1812.

Pablo Eisenberg, "The Foundation Business," Nation, 25 January, reviews Olivier Zunz's Philanthropy in America: A History.

Sam Roberts, "How the Jews Handled Prohibition," NYT, 27 January, reviews Marni Davis's Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition.

Brad Gooch, "How Gossip Became History," Daily Beast, 29 January, reviews Christopher Bram's Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America. Susie Linfield, "The Pains of the Pioneers," The Book, 30 January, reviews Susan Hertog's Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson, New Women in Search of Love and Power.

Gabriel Thompson, "Looking Back at the UFW, a Union With Two Souls," Nation, 25 January, interviews Frank Bardacke, the author of Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers.