The biggest and splashiest article is on the Baroque age and its effect on painting, architecture, and music, but the one I found most interesting was about the trial of Socrates. M.I. Finley describes the historical context, separates fact and myth, and points out the blind conservatism of his accusers, and it’s hard not to see an eerie similarity in their reaction.

Also good is the article on Eero Saarinen in which he was interviewed, explained his thought process and showed designs which he had already executed as well as those that were planned, such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Dulles Airport Terminal.

Lastly, I smiled at the article ‘Privacy Lost’ which lamented inescapable noise coming from “transistor radios, carried everywhere by rock-‘n’-roll addicts”, a culture where Mike Wallace could explain that “People’s thresholds are lower than they used to be” relative to the bluntness of interviewer’s questions, and celebrities who “now disgorge their blackest secrets in print, as if hoping to banish their private demons by serving them at a public feast.” Boy, 1960, you ain’t seen nothing yet. ( )

privacy lost--wiliam k. zinsser
the coming flood of pharoah's temples--etienne drioton
before the argo--geoffrey bibby ( )