Bill Keller, "2,000 Years of Popes, Sacred and Profane," NYT, 7 July, reviews John Julius Norwich's Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy.

Caroline Weber, "When French Was the Language of Enlightenment," NYT, 8 July, and Frederic Raphael, "Why They All Came to Versailles," WSJ, 9 July, review Marc Fumaroli's When the World Spoke French, transl. by Richard Howard.

Andrew Holgate for the Barnes & Noble Review, 9 May, and Gary J. Bass, "Why the Crimean War Matters," NYT, 8 July, review Orlando Figes's The Crimean War: A History.

Kevin Boyle, "Clarence Darrow, Equal Opportunity Defender," NYT, 8 July, reviews Andrew E. Kersten's Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast and John A. Farrell's Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned. Tim Gebhart reviewed Farrell's biography for Blogcritics, 12 June.

Claire Dederer, "Teach for America, Frontier Edition," Slate, 4 July, reviews Dorothy Wickenden's Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.

Christopher Turner, "Wilhelm Reich: the man who invented free love," Guardian, 8 July, draws on research for his new book, Adventures in the Orgasmatron: Wilhelm Reich and the Invention of Sex.