History Carnival #19 goes up on Tuesday 1 November at (a)musings of a grad student. Send your nominations of exemplary posts that have appeared since 15 October to our colleague, Rebecca Goetz: rgoetz[at]fas[dot]harvard[dot]edu.

Tristram Hunt,"Quo Vadis America?" The Observer, 23 October, previews a new eleven part series on Rome produced by BBC and HBO. Comparative empires, anyone?

Tom Reiss,"The First Conservative: How Peter Viereck Inspired – and Lost – a Movement," New Yorker, 24 October, has touched off a fascinating disputation about the place and legacy of the Mt. Holyoke historian and poet in late twentieth century American conservatism. The article isn't on-line, but you can read a precise of it here. John J. Miller's"Veering Off Course: The New Yorker tries to revive Peter Viereck," National Review, 26 October, sees in Reiss's article another attempt to undermine the Bush administration (as if it weren't doing quite enough of that on its own). Viereck and Reiss seem to me to have been right all along. There is nothing conservative about capitalism's reckless abuse of human communities in the name of profits. A more obscure historian put it more eloquently:"... industrial capitalism has been the radical force in American society, generating social change of unforeseen consequence, heedlessly disruptive of human community." Thanks to Dave Merkowitz at Cincinnati Historian for the tip.

Gail Russell Chaddock,"Their Clout Rising, Blogs are Courted by Washington's Elite," Christian Science Monitor, 27 October, comments on the increasing influence of political blogs in the nation's capitol. Thanks to Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy for the tip.

Finally,"How To Become a Republican," if – ahh, erm, unno – that's whatcha wannabe. Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the tip.