Friday's Notes
At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall puts on his historian's cap to suggest that:
... historically, the rising incidence of piracy has frequently, if not always, been a sign of the receding reach of whatever great power has taken on responsibility for policing the sea lanes. The decline of the Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean before the rise of Rome. Caribbean piracy during Spain's long slide into decrepitude and before England decided she lost more than she gained from it. There are many examples. I note too that the Russians just announced that they're sending a few more warships to try to get things under control off the coast of East Africa.
The Guardian has a slide show of excerpts from Charles Darwin's letters and diaries, contemporary cartoons and photographs, taken from David Quammen's new illustrated edition of Darwin's On The Origin of the Species.
The American Social History Project and CUNY's Center for New Media and Learning presents Picturing U. S. History,"an interactive source for teaching with visual evidence."
Six years after being sent to the plagiarism corner, there to sit in exile with Stephen Ambrose, Doris Kearns Goodwin is back on top of her game. Obama cabinet-making has put her study of Lincoln's cabinet, Team of Rivals, back among best-sellers; she is a News Analyst for NBC and reportedly commands up to $40,000 for a lecture. Yet, her"team of rivals" argument is being challenged by her peers. James Oakes,"What's So Special About a Team of Rivals?" NYT, 19 November, argues that Lincoln's inviting competitors into his cabinet was neither innovative nor smart; and Matthew Pinsker's"Lincoln and the myth of 'Team of Rivals'," LA Times, 18 November, argues that Lincoln's cabinet was far more dysfunctional than Goodwin allows. Hat tip.
Alexander Cockburn,"The Great Divider," New Left Review, September/October, severely attacks Rick Perlstein's widely acclaimed Nixonland from Perlstein's left.