Reviews and News:
Revisionists accounts of the Holy Roman and Austrian Empires.
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Alyson Hagy reviews Ron Hansen’s Billy the Kid: “Hansen has an abiding interest in the tension between a historical figure’s publicized persona and the private, unadorned self. Who are these infamous souls? What allows them to sidle across the boundaries of taboo? Why are we forever drawn toward their burning flames? A skilled researcher, Hansen anchors his book in the dark waters of character. The Kid’s story has been told many times. But not like this.”
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An eclectic history of the Himalayas: “Topics covered in this long book include crustal formation and destruction, the pre-Buddhist Bon religion (even today 10 per cent of Tibetans are Bon-worshippers), shamans, yeti, Colonel Francis Young husband (‘the first mountaineer’), altitude sickness (which fascinates Twigger), the 19th-century exploration of Nain Singh, that bloody annoying Madame Blavatsky and much else.”
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Jane Jacobs “remains an emblem, a surveyor’s mark driven into the rock, for all who want to think about the problem of the American city. Robert Kanigel’s new biography, Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs, gives a good overview of her life and times, particularly when coupled with the recent Vital Little Plans, a collection of Jacobs’s shorter essays.”
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In Case You Missed It:
Yes, colleges are liberal bubbles. Here’s the data.
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Sam Leith reviews Jonathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang: “Say what you like about Jonathon Green…He works his ring off. He works like a wop.”
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Book reviews used to draw blood. Now they are as well behaved as the Queen’s corgis. What happened?
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James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky explain where scientific studies of morality can go wrong
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Classic Essay: Harvey Mansfield, “Democracy and Greatness”
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Interview: Ben Domenech talks to Emily Ekins, director of polling at the Cato Institute, about why the polls were so wrong and how voting blocs are evolving
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