M. E. Yapp,"America and the Barbary states," TLS, 5 February, reviews Michael B. Oren's Power, Faith, Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the present.

Richard Sieburth,"Claudel and Segalen: ambassador poets," TLS, 6 February, looks at 19th century French engagement with China by reviewing Paul Claudel's Knowing the East (James Lawler, trans.) and Victor Segalen's Stèles (Timothy Billings and Christopher Bush, eds. and trans.).

Edward J. Larson,"The Politics of History," WSJ, 6 February, compares Republican and Democratic appropriations of American history and finds both of them wanting.

As the race for the Democratic presidential nomination promises to extend into the Spring, expect more close examinations of Hillary Clinton's political career. Current examples: Jerry Zeifman,"Hillary's Crocodile Tears in Connecticut," Accuracy in Media, 5 February, on her performance as a staff attorney to the House Judiciary Committee, when it tried Richard Nixon; and David Brooks,"The Cooper Concerns," NYT, 5 February, on her management of health care legislation in the early 1990s.