Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

This week on nybooks.com: The Review’s April 24 issue features G.W. Bowersock on Simon Schama’s Story of the Jews, Joel E. Cohen on the case for more babies, and two poems by John Ashbery. On the NYRblog, Ian Johnson interviews Chinese education reformer Jiang Xueqin. And we remember two long-standing contributors and friends of theReview, Joseph Kerman and Peter Matthiessen. THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY KNOPF DOUBLEDAY PUBLISHING GROUP

What a Saga! G.W. Bowersock Simon Schama’s new book is by no means a history of the Jews, despite its roughly chronological structure and distinct geographical frames. It is, as its title proclaims, a story, for which mere words barely suffice.   ADVERTISEMENT   The Case for More Babies Joel E. Cohen Are too few children born these days in the US or the world? How highly do we value the children we have now?   The Enthusiasts John Ashbery That building has won over everything. Here in high school opportunities are numerous, but what are they for? You could live like a girl of thirteen in a single dream, quash outside solicitations, go back to sleep every time, wherever your suns take you.   Plus: Helen Epstein on Uganda, Oliver Sacks on what plants can feel, Elaine Blair onadultery in the novel, George Soros on Ukraine and Europe, and more.   ADVERTISEMENT   Solving China’s Schools Ian Johnson interviews Jiang Xueqin “The reform movement in the US is led by a bunch of Ivy League people who are obsessed with data. They want to bring ‘accountability’ to the American school system. That means testing. They use China as the Yellow Peril. ‘If our kids can’t do math, China is going to kick our ass.’”   Inside the Endangered Arctic Refuge Peter Matthiessen Wild northern Alaska is one of the last places on earth where a human being can kneel down and drink from a wild stream without being measurably more poisoned or polluted than before; its heart and essence is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (2006)   Mozart à la Mode Joseph Kerman That the Mostly Mozart audiences of today are pleased by what the composer wrote to please his own paying public must count as a mysterious circumstance, possibly even an ominous one. Our special empathy for these works is much less easy to understand than the lack of interest in them during the 19th century. (1989)