May 11, 2011

20th Century Notes

by Cliopatria

Paul Berger, "Treasured Judaica Library, Feared Lost, Is Back On the Market," Jewish Daily Forward, 4 May, reports that the Valmadonna, the finest collection of historical Judaica in private hands is again on the market.

Adam Kirsch, "Youth in Revolt," Tablet, 10 May, reviews Walter Benjamin's Early Writings (1910-1917), edited and translated by Howard Eiland.

The Library of Congress debuts its new "National Jukebox," essentially the whole catalogue of Sony's (and antecedents') pre-1925 recordings. I could have spent all night just sampling it.

Jerry Saltz, "The Rutting Bull," NYMagazine, 23 April, reviews "Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour fou," an exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan.

In Evan R. Goldstein, "A Troubling Legacy, Unfolded," CHE, 1 May, UNC, Chapel Hill's Konrad Jarausch confronts his father's service in the German army in World War II.

Simon Akam, "The Horror, Footnoted," The Book, 10 May, reviews Krijn Peters's War and the Crisis of Youth in Sierra Leone.

Michiko Kakutani, "An Insider Views China, Past and Future," NYT, 9 May, reviews Henry Kissinger's On China.

In Stephen Jewell, "Niall Ferguson the history boy," nzherald.co.nz, 6 May, Ferguson tells Jewell "how television democratises knowledge and why colonialism wasn't all bad."

Yoni Applebaum, "American Scripture: How David Barton Won the Christian Right," Atlantic, 10 May, is among the recent critiques.

Finally, farewell to Horace Freeland Judson, a distinguished historian of molecular biology.