Simon Jenkins, "The potent sweep of English history," Telegraph, 26 September, draws on his A Short History of England.

Sanford Schwartz, "Quicksilver Frans Hals," NYRB, 13 October, reviews Walter Liedtke's Frans Hals: Style and Substance and "Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum," an exhibit at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Blake Gopnik, "The True Face of Jesus?" Daily Beast, 23 September, reviews "Rembrant and the Face of Jesus," an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Jimmy So, "What is Romanticism?" Daily Beast, 25 September, reviews Tim Blanning's The Romantic Revolution: A History.

Mike Dash, "Dahomey's Women Warriors," Past Imperfect, 23 September, sketches the tradition of female warriors in Dahomey.

Michael Dirda, "A Doyle Man," Paris Review, 21 September, is excerpted from Dirda's On Conan Doyle.

Jim Newton reviews Michael Kazin's American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation for the LA Times, 25 September.

Jacob Weisberg, "Don't Believe Ron Suskind," Slate, 22 September, is a hostile review of Suskind's Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President.

Matthew Avery Sutton, "Why the Antichrist Matters in Politics," NYT, 25 September, takes another look at evangelical politics.