Saturday Notes

Tim Burke has posted his third syllabus for next semester at Swarthmore, History 8C From Leopold to Kabila: The Bad Twentieth Century in Central Africa. For all his effort, Tim's course doesn't make Family Security Matters' list of the Ten Most Dangerous College Courses of 2007."Imperialism in American History" at UC, Irvine, clocks in at #3. I'm guessing that's Emily Rosenberg's course, but I'm not certain.

Stephen McClarence reviews Gavin Stamp's Britain's Lost Cities for the London Times, 14 December. Much of what the Luftwaffe didn't destroy was leveled by urban renewal.

Sean Wilentz,"The Delusional Style in American Punditry," TNR, 19 December, tackles the pundits' celebration of Barack Obama. Obama's like – well, he's like William Jennings Bryan or GWB. Hat tip to Christopher Miller at History and Education. Elsewhere on the campaign scene, look who's a fascist now!

Finally, Classic Television ShowBiz has a trove of Christmas episodes of old TV and radio shows: Addams Family, Beverly Hillbillies, Dragnet, Milton Berle, Howdy Doody, Brady Bunch, Honeymooners, Munsters, Three's Company, and over twenty Christmas episodes of the Jack Benny radio show. Hat tip to WFMU's Beware the Blog via Another History Blog.