Michiko Kakutani, "Gathering at the Wake for Western Dominance," NYT, 14 November, reviews Niall Ferguson's Civilization: The West and the Rest.

David Horspool, "England's Pasts," TLS, 16 November, reviews Peter Ackroyd's The History of England, I: Foundation; and Simon Jenkins's A Short History of England.

Christopher Bray, "The Call to Order," The Book, 16 November, reviews Susie Harries's biography of the flawed German historian of British architecture, Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life.

Dwight Garner, "Listening Again to Rock's Wild Child and Finding Grandeur and Dread," NYT, 15 November, reviews Greil Marcus's The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years.

Finally, congratulations to Oberlin's Steven S. Volk, who has been named a CASE Professor of the Year for 2011; and farewell to Notre Dame's Vincent P. DeSantis, a distinguished historian of 19th and 20th century America.