"Team Herodotus" vs. "Team Thucydides"

"We are, Mr. Cohen writes, in a 'golden age' of history writing. For most of human existence, the recording of the past has been 'sacred history,' propaganda put forth by a priestly caste or authorities who claimed to rule by divine right—or, sometimes, simply to be divine. History as we know it—honest and free inquiry across the disciplines—has, he argues, only been possible in two epochs. The first was the founding era of the Greeks and the Romans. The second is ours, the era initiated in 1520, when Pope Leo X commissioned Niccolò Machiavelli to write a 'History of Florence.' Homer uses histor to mean a 'good judge.' A historian's judgment is impaired when a theological thumb is on the scales—but is the judgment of secular historians any better?"

Dominic Green at The Wall Street Journal reviews Richard Cohen's Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past.

"Even if You Think You Have Never Read Thucydides, the Odds Are You Have"

"While not thought of as medical history, Thucydides's account had wide influence on plague literature to come. Works like Albert Camus' The Plague and Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year—both of which have become newly popular among those looking to better understand the novel coronavirus—mined, at times mimicked Thucydides for their own texts. In fact, the shadow cast by Thucydides' story stretches from Lucretius' On the Nature of Things to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal." 

At Slate, Robert Zaretsky discusses "The Plague That Killed Athenian Democracy."

"New Evidence Reveals Ancient Greeks Immediately Regretted Inventing Theater"

"Brubaker added that several new findings suggest the ancient Greeks also lamented encouraging those prone to pondering life's unanswerable questions out loud to call themselves 'philosophers.'"

From The Onion.

Aphrodite's Child

"With its stark red, black and white cover it looked more like an Angry Brigade communique than a Genesis album. The band had hinted at apocalypse before on their 1969 single End of the World, with a quiet/loud structure that anticipated the Pixies and Nirvana, but their pastoral moments were nowhere to be found on the dense 666. Vangelis's production was tough but spacious, at its most head-spinning on The Four Horsemen, a chunky funk groove, with a guitar wig-out and Beach Boys-esque backing vocals. 666 was rediscovered in the 1990s, and has since been sampled by everyone from Air to Euro pranksters Scooter (it was also, apparently, the Verve's main inspiration for Urban Hymns)."


Bob Stanley in The Guardian writes a tribute to Greek singer Demis Roussos.

"The Program They Imposed on Greece Never Made Sense"

"Why were the original projections so wildly overoptimistic? As I said, because supposedly hardheaded officials were in reality engaged in fantasy economics. Both the European Commission and the European Central Bank decided to believe in the confidence fairy—that is, to claim that the direct job-destroying effects of spending cuts would be more than made up for by a surge in private-sector optimism. The I.M.F. was more cautious, but it nonetheless grossly underestimated the damage austerity would do.
"And here’s the thing: If the troika had been truly realistic, it would have acknowledged that it was demanding the impossible. Two years after the Greek program began, the I.M.F. looked for historical examples where Greek-type programs, attempts to pay down debt through austerity without major debt relief or inflation, had been successful. It didn't find any."


Paul Krugman in The New York Times reacts to the Greek elections.

"The End of 'Merkozy'"

"Needless to say, that’s not what you heard from the usual suspects in the run-up to the elections. It was actually kind of funny to see the apostles of orthodoxy trying to portray the cautious, mild-mannered François Hollande as a figure of menace. He is 'rather dangerous,' declared The Economist, which observed that he 'genuinely believes in the need to create a fairer society.' Quelle horreur!"

Paul Krugman in The New York Times reacts to the French and Greek election results.

"So What Does Ail Europe?"

"For the rest of us, however, getting Europe right makes a huge difference, because false stories about Europe are being used to push policies that would be cruel, destructive, or both. The next time you hear people invoking the European example to demand that we destroy our social safety net or slash spending in the face of a deeply depressed economy, here’s what you need to know: they have no idea what they’re talking about."       

Paul Krugman explains in The New York Times.

La Divina

"If the Istituto exhibition were an opera, Callas probably would be pleased with the staging. Her costumes have been posed in an eye-catching and realistic manner. Her 1956 La Scala Il Barbiere di Siviglia dress is a vibrant shade of marigold with contrasting black netting and pompoms. White lace drapes from the elbows, which one can imagine enhanced her every gesture."

Julie Neigher in the Los Angeles Times reviews "Maria Callas: A Woman, a Voice, a Myth" at Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Westwood.