Sean Dodson,"Top Shelves," Guardian, 11 January, nominates the ten best bookshops from around the world. The Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, Netherlands, and El Ateneo in Buenes Aires, Argentina, are extraordinary. Shops in the United States make the list only for comic books. Hat tip.

Carolyn Elkins,"What's Tearing Kenya Apart? History, for one thing," Washington Post, 6 January, tracks Kenyan chaos to its colonial past.

Jeffrey Rosen,"Say What You Will," NYT, 13 January, reviews Anthony Lewis's Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment.

Ray Arsenault,"Forgotten Revolutionaries," Washington Post, 13 January, reviews Glenda Gilmore's Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950.

Timothy Noah,"Fathers and Sons," NYT, 13 January, reviews Jacob Heilbrunn's They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.

With the addition of San Diego State's Edward Blum as a contributing editor, the Cliopatria Awards' Best New Blog, Religion in American History, is even better. Ed's first post,"A Tale of Two Randalls," RiAH, 12 January, reviews Randall Balmer's God in the White House: A History and Randall Stephens's The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South.