University of Pennsylvania historian David Ruderman acknowledges that academics -- himself included -- often gear their writing to other scholars, rather than to a general audience. In addition, historians tend to stick to their own intellectual turf, rather than wading into unfamiliar waters. An expert on Jewish life and thought during the Italian Renaissance -- with an particular interest in...

SPEAKING VOLUMES I remember how, in 1963, my father decided that my sports-mad older brother needed to be introduced to some culture. What was his proposed cure for this young teen's basketball monomania? The old man had purchased a clutch of tickets for a musical then trying out in Center City before it headed for Broadway. As I recall it,...