History Carnival LXXII goes up at Melissa Bellanta's The Vapour Trail on Thursday 1 January. Send your nominations of December's best in history blogging to her at: m.bellanta*at* uq*dot*edu*dot*au.

Michael Hirsch,"Follow the Money," NYT, 25 December, reviews Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

Charles Isherwood,"Brush Up Your You-Know-What," NYT, 25 December, reviews Marjorie Gerber's Shakespeare and Modern Culture.

Richard Byrne,"Ranters and Corantos: Renaissance Journalism," The Nation, 22 December, reviews"Breaking News: Renaissance Journalism and the Birth of the Newspaper," an exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. See also: Scott McLemee,"Wondrous Communications," Quick Study, 27 December, on C. L. R. James and the English Revolution.

Jane and Michael Stern,"A Kick From Champagne," NYT, 25 December, reviews Tilar J. Mazzeo's The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It. You do know what an"oenobiography" is, don't you?

Matthew Price,"The great dictators," The National, 26 December, reviews Alex Beam's A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.

David Carr,"Plowing Through the Door," NYT, 26 December, reviews Michael Wolff's The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch.

Finally, farewell to Harvard's Samuel P. Huntington.