Reviews and News:

A look at American democracy from the outside: "In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville strikingly observed that Americans live in 'perpetual adoration' of themselves and that 'only foreigners or experience can make certain truths reach their ears.' These remarks, quoted at the beginning of James Nolan's impressive work on the most reflective foreign observers of American democracy, provide the point of departure for a fascinating study."

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The food of the depression: "In the years before the Depression, the American table, especially in rural areas, was an all-you-can-eat buffet. Teams of women cooked for male farmworkers, and fresh-baked pie was served at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was Americans who had sent food to starving Europeans during World War I. A Square Meal chronicles the ways the nation coped with suddenly not being the land of plenty."

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Joseph Bottum reviews A. M. Juster's "charming, clever, concise" Saint Aldhelm's Riddles.

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Pierre Bayle was one of the most trenchant defenders of religious tolerance. "Voltaire said he was the greatest reasoner who ever set pen to paper."

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In Case You Missed It:

Eleanor Dickey explains when and why the Greeks became more polite: "Classical Greece (or at least the portions of it from which most of our surviving literature comes, particularly Athens) was fiercely egalitarian and democratic. Neither the equality nor the democracy extended to everyone – women and slaves formed two major classes of exceptions – but those who had the good fortune to be included valued their equality highly and made sure it was maintained. Men who revealed greater-than-average wealth were quickly relieved of the excess by being assigned to fund an artistic or military enterprise, and those who thought themselves better than the rest were often sent into exile. This egalitarian culture was reflected in the classical Greek language, in which adult male citizens addressed each other all in the same way – and made requests without saying 'please'. This situation came to an abrupt end in the late fourth century BCE, when Greece was conquered by the Macedonian king, Philip II."

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"Aristocratic 18th-century England was one long picnic of boating, archery, feasting and amateur dramatics."

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Eric Ormsby on the pleasures of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the life of its 19th-century English translator, Edward FitzGerald.

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A world without borders is a fantasy. They "do not create difference—they reflect it."

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Classic Essay: Thomas P. Curtis, "High Hurdles and White Gloves"

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Interview: Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi talk with Francesca Wade about the Bloomsbury Group, Toby Lichtig about the failures and successes of Geoff Dyer, and more.

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