The finalists for the
2009 George Washington Book Prize for the best work on the American Revolution and the early republic were announced yesterday. They are: Annette Gordon-Reed's
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, Kevin J. Hayes's
The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson, and Jane Kamensky's
The Exchange Artist: A Tale of High-Flying Speculation and America's First Banking Collapse. The judges, Joyce Appleby, Ira Berlin, and Jay Winik, chose the finalists from 78 nominees.
Scott McLemee reviews Jeff B. Perry's Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 for the Barnes & Noble Review, 20 February.
Julian Barnes,"Such, Such Was Eric Blair," NYRB, 12 March, reviews George Orwell's All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays, Orwell's Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays, and Orwell's Why I Write.
Robert Colville reviews Stan Lauryssens's Dalí and I: Exposing the Dark Circus of the International Art Market for the Telegraph, 17 February.