Apologies for the somewhat abbreviated post: I've been busily preparing for this week's trip to Savannah for the Society of Early Americanists meeting, so I'm sure I missed a few stories as they whizzed by. If you're coming to the meeting or are in Savannah I hope I'll see you there (and if anyone has recommendations for restaurants or bookstores in the city, I'll be more than happy to receive them!)
- At ProfHacker this week, professor Jonathan Sterne discussed his and his partner's winter break project: organizing their library. This was particularly timely since I've been doing the same thing lately (I'll have more to say about it once I finally finish, which actually does seem like it may be a possibility at some point in the reasonably near future). It's quite a job, that's for sure!
- On Friday the White House announced a new policy with the goal of providing open access to federally-funded research. Link roundup here.
- The shortlist for the Oddest Book Title of the Year was announced this week. See them and vote here.
- Over at The Collation, Goran Proot analyzes a rare Dutch auction advertisement in the Folger's collections.
- The Justice Department has declined to weigh in on the GSU e-reserves case (that sound you hear is a deep sigh of relief from those on the good side of this appeal).
Reviews
- Bernard Bailyn's The Barbarous Years; review by Alan Taylor in TNR.
- John Darwin's Unfinished Empire; review by Alex von Tunzelman in the NYTimes.
- Ellen Gruber Garvey's Writing with Scissors; review by Christopher Benfey in the NYRB.
- Ernest Freeberg's Age of Edison; review by Wendy Smith in the LATimes.
- Jim Crace's Harvest; review by Sam Leith in the TLS.
