Noted Things ...
Dinitia Smith,"Scholar of Judaism, Professional Provocateur," NYTimes, 13 April. Jacob Neusner has published about 924 different books. Dinitia Smith's article also offers some clues about fear and loathing in academe.
James Gleick's"Fallout," Washington Post, 10 April, reviews Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird's new biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American Prometheus. Oppenheimer was an exceptionally talented and complicated man, who anticipated the likelihood of nuclear proliferation and its use as weapon of terror.
If you care to relive the Chronicle of Higher Education's rendition of the Bellesiles controversy, you can do so at Fat Steve's Blatherings. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the tip, but why does the blog's title not give me confidence in its content?
Dean Barnett,"Springtime for Fairleigh Dickinson," Weekly Standard, 11 April. Professor Jacques Pluss's professed Naziism leads Barnett to ask why American colleges and universities do not forthrightly say: Our faculty members are Americans, first, and scholars, second. After all, when he was president of Columbia University, Dwight Eisenhower had no problem with saying it.
After reading Ulysses Grant's Memoirs, POTUS says that Americans need to think about penance and history.
Caleb McDaniel and eb at delayed reaction suggest that we must be able to say why we devote our lives to history.