Joshua Glenn,"The Splendid Splinter," Washington Post, 21 October, reviews Henry Petroski's The Toothpick: Technology and Culture. Add toothpicks to the growing number of commodity histories in recent years.

The theme of the current issue of Sweden's Axess magazine is"Anti-Americanism." Nathanael Robinson recommends Avishai Margalit's essay,"The West by the Rest." Margalit will give his Irving Howe Lecture,"Sectarianism: Religious and Political," at 7 p.m. on Tuesday 30 October at CUNY Graduate Center's Proshansky Auditorium at Fifth Avenue & 34th Street in NYC.

Discussions:
At a historian's craft, our colleague, Rachel Leow, hosts a conversation about"when does historical writing go from being historiography to history? — or ... when do we stop regarding a piece of historical work as a piece of academic writing on some historical event, and start regarding it instead as a primary source in itself?"
Mary Lefkowitz v Brandon Watson on the superiority of polytheism over monotheism.
Robert Bateman v Victor Davis Hanson (scroll down) on Hanson's Carnage and Culture. This will continue, as Bateman's series will take on Hanson's book chapter by chapter. Chris Bray also recommends Robert Citino's comments on Carnage and Culture in the current AHR.
Chris Bertram v Andrew Sullivan on"hate speech."