Category Archives: Books

DeLong, Diamond and Savage Minds

Posted on July 29, 2005 by Timothy Burke

[cross-posted at Cliopatria] Brad DeLong has been fairly harsh in his response to the Savage Minds bloggers on the subject of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel. I also have problems with the SM bloggers in their reading (or viewing) … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa, Books | 6 Comments

Whoa. Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Yes! No! Whoa.

Posted on July 18, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Or, “My weekend with the new Harry Potter book”. Spoilers abound, so avert your eyes if you want to remain innocent of the plot details. — At the beginning of the book, Rowling appeared to signal that the status quo … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Popular Culture | 43 Comments

Book Notes: Theory’s Empire

Posted on July 13, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Warning: this is a really, really long post. Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 31 Comments

Book Notes: Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation

Posted on June 28, 2005 by Timothy Burke

There was a good deal of discussion back in May about David Greenberg’s Slate article, “That Barnes and Noble Dream”, about whether academic historians should aspire to be “populizers”. I thought Greenberg had some interesting observations that I didn’t always … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 9 Comments

Take a Ride on the Meme Train

Posted on June 24, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Ok, so Laura inflicted this one on me. Do you ever read those stuffy book lists you see circulating, like ‘List your five most important books,’ and think to yourself- no wonder these people are so damned boring. Some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Books | 9 Comments

Excuse Me?

Posted on June 1, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Looking over the much-blogged-about list compiled by a panel of noted conservatives of the “ten most dangerous books”, I have to say that my ability to imagine or appreciate what other people are thinking deserts me a bit. I readily … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Politics | 17 Comments

Book Notes: Jon Wiener, Historians in Trouble

Posted on May 30, 2005 by Timothy Burke

I’m going to return to my aspiration to make regular entries about books I’m reading, partly to help me to work my way through the growing stack of things I’ve put on my “to be read” pile. These aren’t reviews: … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 2 Comments

Built to Last

Posted on May 13, 2005 by Timothy Burke

One of the few blog discussions that I followed pretty closely during my blog-vacation was the spiralling conversation that came out of initial reactions to The Valve. It drew a number of comments from me at various sites, and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Popular Culture | 3 Comments