In case you haven't already seen it, the newest edition of Common-Place is up. A few good articles are below:

• "History Made Me Liberal" by Jeffrey L. Pasley -- My favorite lines: "What is the world coming to when political scientists start rating presidents? Next the historians will start telling the kids that the Indians were here first or something."

• "Legal History and the Material Culture of the Law" by Michael Hoeflich -- A review of Martha J. McNamara's From Tavern to Courthouse: Architecture & Ritual in American Law, 1685-1860.

• "Family Values: Lessons in Material Culture" by Martha Brogan -- A great article about discovery and family history.