More Noted Things

Henry Petroski,"The Glorious Toothpick," The American, November/December, tracks its history.

Bookforum has a roundup of recent popular press reviews of books in American history.

David Marquand,"Accidental Hero," New Statesman, 6 December, reviews Richard Reeves's new biography of John Stuart Mill.

Lucy Ash,"Wild, wild East," New Statesman, 29 November, features Soviet-era fascination with and equivalents of American Western films.

"Record Making with Duke Ellington (1937)" is an interesting 5 minute promotional clip with both the Duke's music and a look at the technological production of 78 rpm records. Thanks to Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy.

Michael Dirda,"The cartoonist who made Mad magazine truly mad for more than 30 years," Washington Post, 9 December, reviews Don Martin's The Completely Mad Don Martin. Hat tip.

Finally, Eric Rauchway has been here, there, and manywhere in the History Blogosphere. Most recently, he's teamed with his UC, Davis, colleague, Ari Kelman, to blog at The Edge of the American West.