So our early modern seminar (history of science) this fall is all Galileo-themed. I'm not trying to be churlish- really- but good god, 16 weeks of Galileo, what a waste. We even made a point of listing off all the things Galileo didn't do himself as a way of cataloguing all the cool stuff we wouldn't be talking about.

Anyway we're reading Wootton's biography Galileo: Watcher of Stars, which I gather will be treated sort of like a textbook, with articles and chapters from other works filling in the gaps. Have any of you read Wootton, and what did you think? Do you have any favorite Galileo books that you think I should also take a look at? (I already have Biagioli's Galileo Courtier)

Even better, do you have any favorite monographs on early modern science in general? I'd like something in natural history or maybe even medicine, as we'll be heavy on the physical sciences all year.

Galileo! Pah!

Hector Fleischmann's attempts to rescue Fouquier-Tinville from the garbage dump of history continue to delight me. Both in a "dude these arguments are terrible what are you even thinking" way and in a "oh wow that's actually true I'll have to reevaluate everything" way. In Les Coulisses du Tribunal Révolutionnaire he keeps stopping halfway through really interesting discussions by pointing future books dedicated to tackling Fouquier's trial and the specific accusations against him. In some other books there are two works called Réhabilitation de Fouquier-Tinville and Correspondance judiciaire et privée de Fouquier-Tinville on the "also by this author" page, labelled as being in progress. After some googling, it seems like he died before either of those was finished. God damn it.

I asked this in the Friday Free-For-All, but I didn't get any responses, so if it's ok I'll repost it here.

Would anyone have suggestions on good memoirs or biographies of great Western composers? A number of years ago I read the memoirs of Hector Berlioz on a friends' recommendation, and it was not only fascinating to delve into the life of a great composer, but the book itself is hilarious (Berlioz had a MASSIVE ego, a pretty severe persecution complex, and enough ridiculous misadventures to fill a young adult comedy movie). As a former orchestral musician in high school and college, I have mostly experienced composers through their works, but it would like a few more glimpses into who they were as people. I know there are a few historians of music on here, anyone have recommendations?

Just finished reading "Ghettostadt: Łódź and the Making of a Nazi City* by Gordon J. Horwitz.

Have to say I'm a little disappointed. Based on the subtitle, I was expecting a little more on the city outside the ghetto; but instead those passages are simply used to contrast the deplorable conditions within the ghetto. Very little is said on the actual living conditions of Litzmannstadt, as Łódź was renamed under the Nazis. There is lots of material out there on the Łódź ghetto, including others that take a more positive stance towards its controversial leader, Mordechai Rumkowski, but I don't think there is much on the concept of Litzmannstadt.

I've been reading a couple of books about World War I as of late to coincide with the centennial of the war's outbreak. I'm about halfway through Hew Strachan's The First World War, which has been an interesting read. It's a broad overview of the war, so it doesn't get into much detail, but he does make sure to incorporate the parts of the war that made it a world war, namely Japan's involvement and the war in Africa. It's good for a reader who wants to get a broad view of the war, but it's very much a surface view.

The other books I have read so far in this personal series are "Europe's Last Summer* by David Fromkin, "Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War* by Max Hastings, and George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War One by Miranda Carter.