A new issue of Greater Good is out. Michele Moses (Colorado): Moral and Instrumental Rationales for Affirmative Action in Five National Contexts. From The New Yorker, an article on Duke Ellington’s music and race in America (and more). An interview with Natalie Zemon Davis, an award-winning historian who made her name highlighting history's forgotten. An excerpt from Should You Judge This Book by Its Cover?: 100 Fresh Takes on Familiar Sayings and Quotations by Julian Baggini. The introduction to The Zodiac of Paris: How an Improbable Controversy over an Ancient Egyptian Artifact Provoked a Modern Debate between Religion and Science by Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz. Joshua Cohen reviews The Abyss of Human Illusion by Gilbert Sorrentino. From HRHW, a roundtable on the downfall of human rights. The New Frugality is in part what frugality has always been: the search for a good deal — but it has also become a trend, thrift-chic for appearance’s sake. The American dream is simple: work hard and move up — as the country emerges from recession, the reality looks ever more complicated. The world's always thronged with monsters and marvels, but have we been looking for them in the wrong places? A review of A Hunter’s Confession by David Carpenter. The introduction to Stalking the Black Swan: Research and Decision Making in a World of Extreme Volatility by Kenneth A. Posner. The secret life of your home: Bill Bryson took a trip around his own house to find out why we live the way we do (and more). Maps and propaganda: The hundred or so maps on view at the British Library reveal the perennial human obsession with finding one's place in the world. The introduction to Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance by Boris Groysberg.
