Friday Notes
Michael Binyon reviews John Burrows' A History of Histories for the London Times, 16 November.
James Wolcott,"Critical Condition," TNR, 4 December, reviews Gail Pool's Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America. Dwight Gardner joins the discussion here.
William Grimes,"Freedom Just Ahead: The War Within the Civil War," NYT, 5 December, reviews David Blight's A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation. Blight is interviewed about his new book here by NPR's Terry Gross.
At kultur.macht.europa, Jürgen Habermas and Germany's Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, debate the future of the European Union. The text of their speeches is at the bottom of the page. Habermas essentially dismisses national differences as inhibiting progress on a constitution. The interests of national leaders, elites and bureaucrats, he argues, are the real obstacles to the democratization of the EU. Thanks to Nathanael Robinson for the tip.
On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court heard the cases of Boumediene v Bush and Al Oudah v Bush, testing the application of habeas corpus rights of American prisoners at Guantanamo. Many of the precedents cited were from English legal history, such as the 17th century's Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon, who imprisoned political opponents in Jersey, in hopes of nullifying their rights."In the end, he failed and was himself impeached before fleeing abroad." You can follow the argument before the Court at Balkinization; and, of course, Dahlia Lithwick,"It was the Best of Habeas, It was the Worst of Habeas," Slate, 5 December. Thanks to Manan Ahmed and Mary Dudziak for the tips.