Thursday Notes

Are you"interested in the ways in which ..."? If so, give it up, babe! It's a cliche and will put us to sleep at your job talk. Sage Ross,"the ways in which," Revise & Dissent, 29 January, has your number.

I am nearing obsession with the negative reviews of David Levering Lewis's God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215. See: Adam Kirsch,"When Civilizations Clashed," NY Sun, 30 January.

Eric Rauchway,"The (Interestingly Accumulated) Wealth of Nations," TNR, 15 January, reviews Ronald Findlay's and Kevin O'Rourke's Power & Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium. Hat tip.

Andrew Curry,"Piecing Together the Dark Legacy of East Germany's Secret Police," Wired, 16 January, looks at the massive job of piecing together the files of the Stazi, East Germany's secret police. Hat tip.

If your subscription to Vogue has lapsed, you may not know that Columbia University's Simon Schama has been doing a food column for the fashion magazine. But if you've missed it, not to worry. Mary Beard's"Can Simon Schama Cook?" A Don's Life, 28 January, says that his recent column on stews doesn't get a passing grade.

Finally, farewell to Jim Zwick (1957-2008). There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of Americanists whose work he touched and improved, even if we never met him. Tributes by Shelley Fisher Fishkin and Scott Eric Kaufman speak for us all.