Blogs > Cliopatria > Sunday Notes

Jul 8, 2007

Sunday Notes


by Cliopatria


Test your geographical knowledge with this World Map Flash Game. Hat tip.

The New 7 Wonders of the World were announced yesterday in Lisbon: Brazil's Statue of Christ the Redeemer, China's Great Wall, India's Taj Mahal, Italy's Colosseum, Jordan's Petra, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, and Peru's Machu Picchu. One of those is not in the same league as the others and not even in the same league with a number of the sites that were not named as winners. See also: Brandon Watson at Siris.

Christopher Caldwell,"Even God Quotes Tocqueville," NYT, 8 July, reviews Hugh Brogan's Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life and Joseph Epstein's Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide.

Eric Rauchway,"FDR's Latest Critics: Was the New Deal UnAmerican?" Slate, 5 July, reviews Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.

Manan Ahmed,"The Mosque and the Ballot," Chapati Mystery, 7 July, comments on the remarkable recent events in Pakistan. It is cross-posted at IC Global Affairs.

Finally, alas, the history blogosphere is the poorer today. Within the last 48 hours and without explanation, the anonymous blogger, PhDinHistory, suddenly withdrew her or his blog from the internet. Perhaps the blogger felt his or her identity had been compromised, but in the absence of an explanation there's little point in speculating about the reasons for this. We've lost some valuable research and an important source of questions about where we're headed. Thanks to Nonpartisan and Ahistoricality for the pointer.


comments powered by Disqus

More Comments:

Ralph E. Luker - 7/8/2007

Right. I doubt that any site in the United States would have -- perhaps should have -- made the final list of seven. I also doubt whether the Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer, and the Eiffel Tower belonged on the list of 21 final competitors.

Nonpartisan - 7/8/2007

Strangely, while Brandon is correct that the Statue of Liberty shouldn't have made the short list, the one American wonder that seems obvious to me doesn't appear to have made the final 21: Mount Rushmore.