Congratulations to the eleven historians who are in the the American Academy of Arts and Sciences class of 2008. The full list of new class members is here.

John Steele Gordon,"Silk, Spices, Gold and Destiny: Global History Is Part of the Bargain," NYT, 30 April, reviews William J. Bernstein's A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World.

Charles McGrath,"In Love With the History Our Teachers Never Told Us," NYT, 30 April, takes Tony Horwitz to Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. It is the site of an early English North American settlement featured in his new book, A Voyage Long and Strange.

Sanford Schwartz,"The Nerve of Frida Kahlo," NYRB, 15 May, reviews"Frida Kahlo," an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Farewell to Columbia's comparative and historical sociologist, Charles H. Tilly. Johann Peter Murmann offers a guide to Tilly's work on methodology, including his"How (and What) Are Historians Doing?" Kieran Healy and Daniel Nexon pay their tributes. Thanks to Mary Dudziak.