The Long Eighteenth

1.  Academic life department.  This might piss you off, or it might amuse you, if you’re in the right mood.  (Question: from what perspective is writing a PhD the same as watching a really good cable TV show?)  On the other hand, this will definitely piss you off.  (For yet more amusement/schadenfreude, read this, but not for too long, since it’ll make your skin fall off)  (courtesy of The Valve and How the University Works)

2.  Contemporary relevance of 18th century writers department.  John Holbo at Crooked Timber analyzes an 18th century right wing blogger precursor of Edmund Burke, Justus Moser, and his pamphlet, “On the Diminished Disgrace of Whores and their Children in our Day” (1772).  In the meantime, Steven Waldman at TPM Cafe wants to make us feel good about the success of religious toleration in America, despite the fact that ordinary liberals and conservatives–meaning all the angry folk filling up his comments section–are still clueless  about what it means.  It would also be nice to see a historically accurate, or at least precise, definition of “deist” somewhere in this discussion, but it is a blog, after all.  (Though this discussion, including the comments, from Boston 1775 seems a whole lot less woolly-headed than Waldman’s.) 

3.  Superb 18th-century window-dressing department.  While we’re still on the topic of the FFs in all their ugliness and Giamatti-like tics and insecurities, Boston 1775 has a nice round-up concerning the HBO wigstravaganza, John Adams.  Don’t miss Jill Lepore’s NYer review essay, either.  Love the wigs and the sets, not so sure about the dialogue.  Isn’t it always that way when we see our period depicted in the movies?

DM