From TNR, a review of Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World by Giulia Sissa. Pet trends that must die: Social networking sites for dogs? Kitty wigs? It's time to stop the madness. From Metapsychology, a review of In Therapy We Trust: America's Obsession with Self-Fulfillment by Eva S. Moskowitz; a review of A Brief History of Anxiety: Yours and Mine by Patricia Pearson; and a review of Radical Grace: How Belief in a Benevolent God Benefits Our Health by J. Harold Ellens. Geoffrey Robertson on how he hid Salman Rushdie during the fatwa. Insurgencies that refuse to die: Five rebellions that somehow keep going years after the governments they antagonize declared victory. A review of The Russell/Bradley Dispute and its Significance for Twentieth-Century Philosophy by Stewart Candlish. From Conversations with History, an interview with John Harte on the current environmental crisis; an interview with Barry Eichengreen on the current economic crisis; and an interview with David M. Kennedy on what is to be learned from the Great Depression. From NPQ, an interview with Paul Samuelson: "Don't expect recovery before 2012; and an article on Barack Obama and "Slumdog Millionaire". From PopMatters, could the lighthearted, seemingly innocuous genre of the romantic comedy actually be as psychologically damaging as onscreen violence and sex?

From The University Bookman, is conservatism dead? A symposium in response to “Conservatism is Dead” by Sam Tanenhaus. Who killed the neocons? Commentary magazine was once one of the conservative movement’s leading voices, but today it’s an ideological bunker. When one extraordinary life story is not enough: Herman Rosenblat survived a Nazi death camp; fifty years on, he told Oprah of the little girl who had thrown food over the fence and kept him alive. Sure, the Twitter guys still have no idea how to make money off their fabulous invention, but for now they are living in a dreamworld of infinite possibilities, maybe the last one on Earth. A look at how your looks betray your personality. Why are creative geniuses always portrayed as insufferable louts? Javier Marias wants to know. An Alienation Artist:  A review of books on unraveling the Kafkaesque mystique of Franz Kafka. Where is Kant when we need him?: We seem unable to extend the rules we live by to others. An interview with Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. The banks are imploding, your home is worthless, we’re all going to die! A new crop of Dr. Dooms are making careers out of scaring you. A review of How To Live A Search for Wisdom From Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth) by Henry Alford (and more).

Neil Munro (Aberdeen): Which Way Does Ukraine Face? Popular Orientations Toward Russia and Western Europe. From the Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Robert Nalbandov ( St. Andrews): Battle of Two Logics: Appropriateness and Consequentiality in Russian Interventions in Georgia; Mykola Kapitonenko (Kyiv): Resolving Post-Soviet “Frozen Conflicts”: Is Regional Integration Helpful?; and Vladimer Papava (GFSIS): The End of the Frozen Cold War? Decisions, decisions: What people can learn from how social animals make collective decisions. From Foreign Policy, the axis of upheaval: A special report on the coming age of instability; and the long legs of the crash: Daniel Drezner on 13 unexpected consequences of the financial crisis. A review of Talk Dirty Yiddish by Ilene Schneider. The Carney Consequence: A poor Oscar choice for Best Actor in 1974 set in motion a ripple effect of makeup awards by the Academy that is still being felt today. If the debate over climate change is closed, why is John Coleman, the founder of the Weather Channel, still trying to prove it’s all a scam? From LRB, Perry Anderson reviews books on Italian politics. Known as the "Tome Raider", he also goes by the aliases Mr Santoro or David Fletcher; a notorious gentleman thief in the rarefied world of antiquarian books, he has slipped through the hands of the police, is wanted and at large.

From Americana, Gunter Beck (Haifa): "Mmmm, Individualism!": Thoreau and Thoreauvian Thought in The Simpsons; and a review of The Futures of American Studies. From Policy, art and the Enlightenment: Art for an audience, rather than art for art’s sake, is one characteristic Jonathan Le Cocq finds in the Enlightenment view of the arts; Don Arthur examines whether the American conservative-libertarian fusion is breaking up; and more on Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. From The Economist, a special report on the new middle classes in emerging markets; “no bourgeoisie, no democracy” — Barrington Moore may have had a point after all. A review of The University Against Itself: The NYU Strike and the Future of the Academic Workplace by Monika Krause, Mary Nolan, Michael Palm and Andrew Ross. MIT's Simon Johnson has emerged as a disinterested critic of US attempts to cope with its ailing banking system. Indulgences return, and heaven moves a step closer for Catholics. McCulture: Americans have developed an admirable fondness for books, food, and music that preprocess other cultures — but for all our enthusiasm, have we lost our taste for the truly foreign? From Esquire, John Richardson on why the Republican Party as we know it must die; and here are funny facts about Canada. Scott McLemee reviews Michel Tardieu’s Manichaeism.