Today it's more than a little stale, not because it's written in the Victorian mode, with all the pretentious-sounding formal locutions of the day and with a complicated plot that untangles according to a neat and instructive moral lesson.
On the evidence of Ms. Loevy's selections, book clubs like coming-of-age stories, exotic settings, family conflict, status seeking and clear, instructive lessons.
There are instructive lessons from history on the kinds of international cooperation that could reinforce the refugee regime and make a difference in the Mediterranean.
"There are innumerable instructive lessons out of the past, but all too frequently, their presentation is highly colored or distorted in the effort to present a favorable national point of view," Marshall said in Oslo.
As a sitting president and a president-elect maneuver over how to bail out Detroit and ultimately how to convince the Big Three to radically change their ways -- there may be some instructive lessons in the Middle East peace process.
