Things Noted Here and There

Michael Dirda reviews Robert Irwin's Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents for the Washington Post, 12 November. Undoubtedly, the debate over Edward Said's work will continue.

You can be there:"Slavery and Antislavery: A New Research and Teaching Workshop," Arizona State University, 13 October. The whole workshop is available on RealPlayer video. Thanks to Sally Greene at Greenespace for the tip.

Two notes from the remarkably productive Edward Ayers of the University of Virginia: 1) Ayers,"History at the Margins," Slate, 9 November, reviews Nicholas Lemann, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War and offers some thoughts on popular v. academic history. Thanks to Kevin Levin at Revise & Dissent and Brian Dirck at A. Lincoln Blog ; and 2) Jeffrey R. Young,"With Digital Maps, Historians Chart a New Way into the Past," CHE, 10 November, revisits Ayres' Valley of the Shadow Project and, with the University of Chicago's Mark V. Olsen and the University of Nebraska's William Thomas, the new Aurora Project. It's about visualizing simultaneity and doing such things as creating MySpace-like visualizations of the social networks of emancipated slaves.

H. W. Brands,"How Last Century's Money Wars May Lead to Healthcare, Pension Reform," LA Times, 12 November. Thanks to Nathanael Robinson at Rhine River for the tip.

Franklin Foer,"Now What?" NYT, 12 November, reviews Bob Woodward's State of Denial. Bush, Rumsfeld, Woodward, and American journalism all take the back of Foer's hand.