From The Pomegranate, Ronald Hutton (Bistol): Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View; and a review of Trials of the Moon: Reopening the Case for Historical Witchcraft by Ben Whitmore. O sister, what art thou: Kathryn Lofton on the Religion of Oprah. Founding Falter: Does the current impasse over the debt ceiling augur a constitutional collapse? South Sudan has become the world's newest nation, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long and bloody civil war. Is America facing a Japanese future? The Curious Capitalist wants to know. A review of The Cost of Free Speech: Pornography, Hate Speech, and Their Challenge to Liberalism by Abigail Levin. Agony and Ivory: Highly emotional and completely guileless, elephants mourn their dead — and across Africa, they are grieving daily as demand from China’s “suddenly wealthy” has driven the price of ivory to $700 a pound or more. A recent Supreme Court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population shows that capacity isn't a cut-and-dried concept (and more). If our identities are only self-conscious creations, where does that leave us? Child marriage in Saudi Arabia: Why hasn't it — pedophilia — been criminalized? From Press Action, a review of The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking — A Memoir by Ying-Ying Chang; and an article on Jared Diamond and the lure of industrial capitalism.
