My neighbor, Stephen ("Comments," Big Tent, 5 February), got a query from the AHA office about renewing his membership. In reply, Stephen unloads his mind about that and his friend, Jeff, chimes in.

Richard Overy,"A Short, Sharp War," Literary Review, February, reviews Adam Zamoyski's Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe.

Brent Holman,"Priorities," Airminded, 5 February, is critical of plans for the future of England's Bentley Priory that are indifferent to its historical significance.

Philip L. Fradkin,"A Classic, or a Fraud," LA Times, 3 February, looks at the fascinating question of plagiarism in Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, a 1972 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Hat tip.

Scott McLemee's"Blue Skies Ahead?" IHE, 6 February, looks at essays on Katrina and New Orleans by Lawrence Powell and Ari Kelman in the recent JAH.

"The Copeland/Huckabee Love Affair," Wittenburg Door, 27 January, exposes the bankrupt alliance of popular evangelicalism and prosperity gospel in the United States. Don't get me wrong. I'm an evangelical and so is the Wittenburg Door, but its lampoons of corrupt religion are well-earned and well-placed. Hat tip.

Jonathan Dresner - 2/6/2008

Stephen refers to the AHA as "most petty, partisan, small-minded intellectual thugs assembled in the western hemisphere."

Come on, surely we can come up with pettier, smaller-minded, more partisan intellectual thuggery than the AHA!

Perhaps the Hindu Studies folks who are trying to whitewash Indian history? Perhaps the AIPAC crowd and their crusade against all critics of Israel, justifed or not? Perhaps the "anti-Zionist" left, which brooks no support of Israel nor freedom of association for American Jews? Perhaps the "No Left Turn" crew, or the National Review? What about NYNOW?

Come on: a little perspective here? No, not Perspectives....