Germany is now known as the site of the most horrific anti-Semitic slaughter in history, the Holocaust. But well before Hitler's rise, as Michael Brenner shows in his new book, In Hitler's Munich, there was a long history of Jewish communal life in Germany, as well as a long history of anti-Semitism. There was even a Jewish premier of Bavaria in the years after World War I, the journalist and revolutionary Kurt Eisner. Eisner was assassinated by an anti-Semite, Count Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley. Arco-Valley, as he is more commonly known, had Jewish ancestry—a reminder of the complicated nature of German-Jewish relationships even before the rise of Nazism.

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A skilled writer, editor, and political activist, Midge Decter was a key figure in the movement of neoconservative, anti-Communist liberals away from the Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s.

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The New York Times recently provided a rare exposure to internal infighting in the Biden administration. According the Times, internal disagreements on border security policy, and particularly whether to keep the Trump administration's "remain in Mexico" approach, have exposed serious fault lines inside the administration between those who worry about the political consequences of the border crisis, and those who want to reject everything the previous administration did on immigration.

While there is always infighting in every presidential administration, this window into the Biden infighting is interesting because there has generally less news about tussles inside the Biden administration.

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Each year around this time, my friend Joel travels to Las Vegas to put down $5 for me on the Yankees to win it all. It's a bet that hasn't paid off in a long while, admittedly—but it's a ritual that, like Rocky Colavito stretching his arms behind his back and crossing himself before coming to the plate, gets me ready for what's coming.

Major League Baseball probably loves fans like me. I watch it on TV, go to games in person, read box scores, and fold in a handful of baseball books, old and new, into my annual reading diet. From every April to October, baseball is part of the rhythm of my daily life, like a fifth season of the year.

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We Weren't Always Wild About Harry

When Harry Truman left office, his approval rating stood at a dismal 31 percent. That day, he held a farewell lunch for his cabinet at the Georgetown home of his outgoing secretary of state, Dean Acheson. The private lunch was off the record, but reporters stationed outside heard gales of laughter coming from within. One of the lines that reporters did hear showed Truman's wry awareness of his standing: "The great thing about my low approval rating is that every year it's going to be better."

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