Tim's Light Reading (7/30/09)

1. This might qualify as a bit dated, but I'm not sure anyone here noted the new autobiographical collection of essays, titled Becoming Historians and published by the University of Chicago Press. Here is an e-mail interview between InsideHigherEd's Scott Jaschik and the book's editors, James M. Banner Jr. and John R. Gillis. The collection includes essays from Rhys Isaac, Joan Wallach Scott, Dwight T. Pitcaithley, Linda Gordon, David A. Hollinger, Maureen Murphy Nutting, Franklin W. Knight, Temma Kaplan, Paul Robinson, and the editors.

2. A few weeks ago I learned of a new print publication, The POINT Magazine. It is a new Chicago-based journal seeking to survey the contemporary scene from an intellectual angle. They might be interested in your idea for an article connecting your scholarly interest to today's news? Here's the TOC for their Spring 09 issue.

3. This NYT article by Carter Dougherty narrates a renewed Catholic interest, particularly in Germany, in a third economic way between capitalism and socialism. Of course the instigation was the early July release of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Charity in Truth." But the article's title, "Catholicism as Antidote to Turbo-Capitalism," reveals that the third way is really just a more ethical market-based structure.

4. Brill's ongoing "Studies in Intellectual History" book series contains some titles that may be of interest to USIH readers. Perhaps they would be receptive to your book proposal?

5. Elizabethtown College prof David Brown comments at HNN on his new book about Midwestern voices in the history profession. I haven't yet read his intriguing intellectual biography on Hofstadter, so I better get going before I'm another book behind.

6. InsideHigherEd's Scott Jaschik e-mail interviews Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze, professor of the history of mathematics at the University of Agder, in Norway, on his new book, Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany: Individual Fates and Global Impact (Princeton Press). Being known as a land of opportunity and tolerance, relatively speaking during the 1930s, increased the net mathematics brain power of the United States during tumultuous times.

7. I want to wish Sterling Fluharty well as he begins an exploration of life outside the history profession. His weblog, PhDinHistory, has quantitatively explored the profession for the last few years and forced some qualitative changes in my opinion about the state of the field.