Edward Rothstein,"When the News Was New," NYT, 23 January, reviews"Breaking News: Renaissance Journalism and the Birth of the Newspaper," an exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

Russell Shorto,"Breath of Thought," NYT, 23 January, reviews Steven Johnson's The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.

Carolyn See,"A Step in the Same Direction," Washington Post, 23 January, reviews Adam Gopnik's Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. See also: Gopnik,"How Lincoln and Darwin Shaped the Modern World," Smithsonian, February.

Helmut Merker,"Marx: the quest, the path, the destination," signandsight, 19 January, reviews Alexander Kluge's 9 1/2 hour film,"News from Ideological Antiquity. Marx – Eisenstein – Das Kapital," and finds it not a moment too long.

Michael Kazin,"Does the Man Matter?" Washington Post, 25 January, reviews Waller R. Newell's The Soul of a Leader: Character, Conviction, and Ten Lessons in Political Greatness and Mark K. Updegrove's Baptism by Fire: Eight Presidents Who Took Office in Times of Crisis.