Rebecca Goetz, Mark Grimsley, Kevin Levin, and I closed a bar last Thursday night at the Southern Historical Association's convention in Richmond. You'll find reasonably sober reports on the convention at Andrew Duppstadt's Civil War Navy, Chris Graham's Whig Hill, and Kevin's Civil War Memory. Kevin learns that, in a moment of insobriety, an editor has confused Virginia's William Mahone with the Prophet, Mahomet!

Colin Thubron,"The Traveler's Tale: A biography of the first Venetian merchant to take the Silk Road," Washington Post, 4 November, reviews Laurence Bergreen's Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu.

Judith Shapiro,"Invasion and Occupation," Washington Post, 4 November, reviews Jonathan D. Spence's Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man.

William Grimes,"Gaul as a Cabinet of Curiosities and Patois," NYT, 2 November; and Caroline Weber,"Tour de France," NYT, 4 November, review Graham Robb's The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to World War I.

Philip Hensher,"Exploring Gertrude Stein's nooks and crannies," Telegraph, 25 October, reviews Janet Malcolm's Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice.

Ronald Gregir Suny,"The Young and the Ruthless," Washington Post, 4 November, reviews Simon Sebag Montefiore's Young Stalin.

Pamela Constable,"Borderlands," Washington Post, 4 November, reviews Vicente Fox's and Rob Allyn's Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith and Dreams of a Mexican President, Jorge G. Castenada's Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants, and Gregory Rodriguez's Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America.

Anthony Lewis,"The Imperial Presidency," NYT, 4 November, reviews Robert Draper's Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush and Jack Goldsmith's The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration. For more serious engagements with Goldsmith's book, see: Stephen Griffin at Balkanization, 2 November; and Neal Katyal,"Counsel, Legal and Illegal," New Republic, 5 November. Hat tip.

George F. Will,"Congress's Unused War Powers," Washington Post, 4 November, cites multiple precedents for congressional restraint of presidential warmaking. Thanks to Chris Bray for the tip.