Saturday, August 17, 2013

Weekend Roundup

  • Around the web, friends and admirers continue to pay tribute to Pauline Maier (1938-2013). MIT's obituary is here; the New York Times write-up is here; the Washington Post's, here. Chris Beneke penned a nice note here, at the Historical Society. (A taste: "Maier treated her fellow historians with the same honest consideration that she tendered her historical subjects, remaining ever open to the possibility that the lowly might possess more insight than their better appointed counterparts (as well as the possibility that they might be out of their senses).").
  • I love the opening to this op-ed, by Catherine O'Donnell (Arizona State University): "I am an historian with a secret. I don’t think studying the past tells us what to do in the present. I should qualify that: If you are considering whether to invade Russia in winter, history provides the answer." The rest is good, too. (Hat tip- History News Network) (KMT)
    • From In Custodia Legis: a compilation of unusual (from today's perspective) and now defunct laws from the United Kingdom, including "the common law offense of being a 'common scold'" and the statutory offense of gambling in a library. 
      Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.