From Common-place, a special section on Thomas Paine, including an article on Paine, the new atheism movement, and the European skeptic tradition; and the unwanted rise of America's voluntary tradition: A review of Creating a Nation of Joiners: Democracy and Civil Society in Early National Massachusetts by Johann Neem. A review of Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification by David Waldstreicher. A review of Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South by Lacy K. Ford. From NYRB, Lincoln off his pedestal: James M. McPherson reviews books on Abraham Lincoln. An article by Morris Dickstein about what 1930s depression art can teach us about our own hard times (and Joan Richardson reviews Dickstein’s Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Depression and more and more and more and more and more). Dashed hopes, less sex, even more Sisyphean labor for women: A review essay on what the histories of the Depression era tell us about middle-class families in crisis, both then and now. Driving Miss Lazy: From strippers to politicians, the drive-through may be finally coming into its own. An excerpt from Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas. Here's an American Indian's journey in the land of Indian casinos. A review of Thriving on a Riff: Jazz and Blues Influences in African American Literature and Film. Honest, unfettered Americana: Just what is this music genre known as Americana?
