More Stuff

Cliopatria holds its eighth symposium tomorrow. While Queen Elizabeth II visits the United States to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the question is:"Why has the United States characteristically taken Puritan New England rather than Anglican Virginia as the foundational touchstone for its national narrative?" Cliopatrians should send their contributions to manan*at*uchicago*dot*edu by midnight Sunday, May 6th. Contributions from all bloggers are welcome at their own blogs. Please send Manan a link to your post and he will include it in the symposium post.

At Edwired, Mills Kelly looks at what one Google Earth community, History Illustrated, is doing with earth scans to put historical events in geographical contexts.

Dominic Sandbrook,"The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves," Telegraph, 3 May, reviews Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Jonathan Miles,"Tobacco Road," NY Times, 6 May, reviews Allan M. Brandt's The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America.

David Greenberg,"The President Who Never Came in from the Cold," Slate, 2 May reviews Frost/Nixon.

Michael Dirda,"From Scholar Daniel Aaron, the Long View of Civilization," Washington Post, 6 May, reviews Daniel Aaron, The Americanist.

Robert Jay Lifton claims that the American gun culture amounts to a social pathology, but in the last two decades an influential group of liberal constitutional authorities – including Akhil Reed Amar, Sandy Levinson, and Lawrence Tribe -- have been persuaded that it is protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Doug Feith, Christopher Hitchens, and Bob Woodward pay their respects to George Tenet's At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. Hat tip.