So, the administration at your small university threatens to shut down your history department's doctoral program if it doesn't re-invent itself. Jonathan Rose,"Rethinking Graduate Education in History," Perspectives, February, tells us what his department decided was important.

Adam Kirsch,"Lessons From the Gilded Age," Slate, 9 February, reviews Barry Werth's Banquet at Delmonico's: Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America.

Matthew Price,"Stacking Paper," The National, 6 February, reviews Kenneth Whyte's The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst.

Eric Rauchway's The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction is the focus of discussion this week at Josh Marshall's TPMCafé.