A new issue of The Global Spiral is out. From The Observer, how far have we come in 80 years? Post-feminist backlash — or new dawn for equal rights?; and Barbie turns 50 next year: Should women be celebrating this anniversary — or turning their backs in disgust on one of the world's most popular dolls? A review of Night's Black Agents: Witches, Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World by Daniel Ogden. Running the Government Printing Office (GPO) might not seem like it would attract the most adventurous of spirits, but in 35-year-old Maria Lefevre, GPO has a chief of staff who’s an adrenaline freak. A review of The Great Inflation and its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence by Robert J. Samuelson. A review of In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography by John Gartner. A review of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles by Pierre Bayard. Dog unto others: Canines have sense of fairness. A review of The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory by Torkel Klingberg. A review of The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In by Hugh Kennedy and God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215 by David Levering Lewis. College for the few: More on Real Education by Charles Murray.
