Scott McLemee,"War in the Heavens and Here Below," IHE, 18 February, reviews Michel Tardieu's Manichaeism.

Eric Rauchway,"Recession Watch: Work for the greater good," Nature, 19 February, looks at the New Deal's contributions in science and technology.

Dwight Gardner,"Lives Defined by Hurricanes, but Devoted to New Orleans," NYT, 17 February, reviews Dan Baum's Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans.

Ann Douglas of Columbia, Robin D. G. Kelley of USC, Peter Rachleff of Macalester, and Adolph Reed of Penn are among the historians who have endorsed the U. S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. Hat tip.

Niall Ferguson,"The Axis of Upheaval," Foreign Policy, March/April, argues that the elements are in place for a chaotic world ahead. Robert Dallek,"When the World Knocks at the White House Door," NYT/100 Days, 18 February, looks at the modern presidency as an exercise in crisis management and what international crises have done to domestic agenda.

Finally, farewell to Victor Kiernan, one of the last of a great generation of British Marxist historians.