Recommended Reading?

[justinclark]

Seems like a preponderance of the very smart people on this board were history majors as undergrads. I wasn't, and I'm a little concerned about entering a program next fall in my current state of ignorance. (My background is in critical theory.) Could anyone recommend a few broad overviews of pre-20th century American history? Also, some background in historiography might be helpful -- is there a book that might introduce me to the major historians themselves and their contributions?

[jaw17]

I'm no help whatsoever, but I'm incredibly impressed that you've been accepted into grad programs w/o undergrad training in history. What's your academic background, and where are you heading next year?

[TMP]

Yeah I'm curious too... I wish i was you in a way- i can't even get admitted for PhD in my field until I've read all the major works! That's what the MA is for

[amanda1655]

I would suggest googling doctoral reading lists for your field of study. Before someone starts their prelims, they have to create a reading list that includes all of the major works in their field.

[justinclark]

Critical studies at CalArts; journalism at Columbia. Two of the four schools I applied to wanted recommendations from historians, which I wasn't able to furnish -- I don't know any, and I applied at the last minute, having previously planned to wait a year. But I had nearly perfect GRE's and (so I've been told) an interesting writing sample. So far I've been accepted by USC, rejected by Berkeley, and am waiting on two others. Not very optimistic, but USC has offered full funding, and everyone seems incredibly nice there, which actually means a lot to me. Probably should have applied to more schools but I didn't really want to leave California. It's a hard thing to do when you've grown up here.

[Cornell07]

Uhhhh... an intro, overview book for US history? Umm... even as a US historian, I can say that I haven't even looked at one since high school. Sorry! I could help if you narrowed down the field just a bit: legal, military, scientific, educational etc...

[justinclark]

I'm not looking for a single text, but rather the foundational texts still referenced by modern scholars, in the way, that say Gibbons' Decline and Fall or Weber's The Protestant Ethic serve as starting points. What are your favorites in your particular area, Cornell?

[redwine]

I'm not a US historian but as a (Euro) history major I can say it will be hard to find an overview that will give you the requisite knowledge - in my experience most 'overviews' are full of generalisations and occasionally lies. I would recommend instead: a) acquainting yourself with the important journals of US history and reading recent issues - this will give you a good idea of current historiographical debates in the field and mean you are reading serious scholarship by major historians reading historiographical type books - if your background is in critical theory you probably have a fair idea of the theoretical backdrop of the twentieth and merging on twenty first centuries as it is, build on this by looking specifically at which theoretical/methodological movements have been especially important in history. For example (and again, this is a European historians perspective - for all I know US historians have different ideas though I doubt they differ enormously) post-structuralism and Foucaldian/Hayden White ideas of construction have been v important in history in the last 20 years, though there is now some reaction against this (hence there are often fights between neo-social historians, hardcore post-structuralists, and those who have entirely different ideas in journals right now, just look at an issue of Journal of Contemporary History for an example). Basically you can be safe in the (v v general) outline that i) marxism influenced history hugely in the first half of C20 and ii) the cultural turn defined it in the 80s and 90s and iii) everyone is debating what is happening next now. So grab some books on these trends (Lynn Hunt's 'The New Cultural History' comes to mind) and READ!!! and c) once you have done these two things, you will prob have an idea what is really grabbing you in terms of current scholarship on US history. So then you'll have a starting point for which books to go check out of the library. As an earlier poster said, looking at the prelim exam reading lists is a really good idea, but obviously theres too much there for you to read over summer, so I'd say do the above first, then you know what really grabs you and you can check those books out first of all.

Hope that helps! Good luck

[Cornell07]

Right oh! Well, in my field of modern American foreign policy...

... a particularly good introductory overview of the Cold War is "The Cold War: A New History" written by John Gaddis in 2006. He has written more detailed histories, but this one touches on the major themes and trends amongst the American and Soviet leadership in a very concise manner.

"Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers" by Ernest May is a book more concerned with thinking about, analyzing, and utilizing history rather than being a history of anything in particular if you need a good book on a particular historical theory or methodology.

"1943: The Victory that Never Was" probably was the first book to get me thinking about military leaders as personalities rather than purely rational, calculating actors. A better example of this perspective is "Strange Victory" also by May. I'll never forget the image of Hitler refusing to put a carpet down on marble hallway leading to his office just so he could watch foreign dignitaries slip and fall.

And Marxist historians were just plain batty, but that's me.

[redwine]

Just to take up this claim Marxist historians are batty, this may well be true, but again from my Euro perspective, it would be very irresponsible to ignore a MAJOR trend in historiography which has influenced huge amounts of social and cultural history such as Marxist historiography. Some of the seminal works of C20 history (am thinking Thompson 'Origins of the English Working Class' and lots of Hobsbawm, plus the whole Annales school) come from a Marxist perspective. Much critical theory is of course the same - its not Marxism, but you can't actually understand it without delving into Marxist ideas to start with.

I just get a little irritated with people who love to dismiss such a huge and influential historical trend. I'm pretty sure Marxist historians will still be being read in 20 years time when terrible relics of Cold War reactionary historiography have been long confined to the dustbin...

[Cornell07]

Oh I was never saying that one shouldn't read a Marxist history; sometimes batty writings are the most influential and thus important writings. It is impossible to understand how Stalin or many other Soviets conducted foreign policy without first understanding Marx's instance on historical determinism regarding the eventual, ultimate failure of capitalism and the coming of the proletarian revolution.

[Historylover]

The Great Republic: A History of the American People Vol 1 fourth edition ISBN 0-669-20986-4. It was one of my texts for studying US Survey I. At the end of every chapter, it has recommended readings for further research. Hope it helps.

[lintseed2008]

I also have no formal History background. I do have a law degree but all of the history that I studied in law school was in the context of human rights law. So...if any of you have any suggestions on reading materials relating to Latin American history it would be awesome! Thanks.

Hi! If you're looking to assemble a reading list for Latin American history, I would HIGHLY recommend going to a university library and hunting down the volumes of The Cambridge History of Latin America, edited by Leslie Bethell. It features contributions from many of the preeminent scholars in the field, AND it includes thoughtful and nuanced summaries of the past historiographical landscape. It does presuppose a certain basic familiarity with the field, but it makes a really good launching pad for acquainting yourself with the crucial texts and assembling helpful bibliographies. I cherish the volumes I own.

(If you don't have access to a university library, the book-series has also been broken into parts and published in paperbacks for undergraduate courses, and these editions are easy to get through used-book sites.)

[amanda1655]

I also ordered books by my potential advisors, so I could a sense of their style of writing and approach to writing history before I decide where I ultimately want to go.

[elsaamo]

Well, it depends on which parts of pre-20th century American history you study. I'm normally interested in modern American history, but there was a time I really liked Revolutionary American history and from there the only major work I'd say you almost "need" to read is Bernard Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, as much for his prose as his history. (I highly recommend J.G.A. Pocock's Machiavellian Moment generally, and it is nominally partially about the American Revolution, but it really isn't about it) It's a sad truth, I think, but very few historical works survive more than a few decades, so there aren't that many "classics". I don't think very many Roman historians bother to read even Gibbon anymore - most of his relevant points have been added into more modern works, and the rest is ignored. The one exception to this rule is actually Pocock, who seems to be partially an historical historian i.e. an historian of historians or of history (yeah, this might need a better name). He even wrote a very long series of books about Gibbon (though, for the record, I haven't read either).

As to a guide to the historiography, that's also kind of difficult. For whatever reason, I've never come across a sort of chatty book written by an American historian discussing the various books in the field. You occasionally see a British work like that (for those interested, I highly recommend J.H. Plumb - I know British historians don't like him, but his essays are hilarious), but rarely American. Because you don't specify which period you're really interested in (or maybe you don't know yet), it's kind of hard to be of much help, except to say my favorite way to enter any particular field is to cannibalize bibliographies, either from a good encyclopedia entry, or simply find any book on the field, flip to the end, and enjoy!

[TMP]

No offense but I find this to be kind of hilarious because I haven't encountered a broad overview type of book for any of my history classes since my freshman year or my AP history classes in high school. So yeah I had a blank look on my face when I read the original post. That's scary how far we've come along!

But to be honest, if you want a light-read broad overview, then look at "What You Don't Know About History" (I think it's mostly US). It's sort of like mini-encyclopedia for US history so you'll find all the major topics in there including the Erie Canal! I think from there, you can go ahead and look at more specific books since it's really hard to find a good overview book. I mean... 100 years isn't long but a lot happened in that critical century of development as a nation compared to the 20th century which is a bit more international, political, and social/cultural. Also like others said, look at the faculty's works that you're going to be working with because they're going to be training you with their approaches anyway.

[elsaamo]

Or better yet - Dave Barry's book on American history. Best history ever. Got me a 5 on the AP

[Minnesotan]

Anything but Guns, Germs, and Steel.

If you want to peruse some selections from some of the primary sources, you could pick up The American Intellectual Tradition (2 vols.). It's a good entree into U.S. Intellectual History. The only problem is that any of the important works of novel/monograph length would have to be excluded, for obvious reasons.

[Cornell07]

Anything but Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Aww... I seem to remember enjoying Guns, Germs, and Steel when I read it ages ago. Perhaps I wasn't a seasoned historian back then?

[Minnesotan]

It was an interesting read, but filled with sweeping generalizations that I don't think hold up under scrutiny. It reminded me of Norman Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague, wherein he posited that because a particular strain of anthrax had been found in the graves of two plague victims that the plague was probably just that in most cases.

I also don't like popular history written by non-historians (Jared Dymond was a medical researcher, if I'm not mistaken).

[amanda1655]

Diamond is a bio-geographer. Germs, Guns, and Steel is actually well-within his field of inquiry. And, I don't think it was any worse than some of the histories that I have read by historians, and in fact, was far better than some.

[Minnesotan]

The study being within his field of inquiry does not make the argument any less generalized. It's understandable, considering his scope (the whole of Western history and much of its prehistory, heh), but this is why I don't like studies like this -- there's no possible way to support a theory treating the history of the known universe in a suitable manner. It's really just fun speculation.

[NSGoddessQ]

If you want to peruse some selections from some of the primary sources, you could pick up The American Intellectual Tradition (2 vols.). It's a good entree into U.S. Intellectual History.

I second Minnesotan. Those are really nice primary source books, and they also provide suggested readings.

For another "selections" series, UChicago's "Readings in Western Civilization" is pretty good.

[pjizz]

Could anyone recommend a few broad overviews of pre-20th century American history? Also, some background in historiography might be helpful -- is there a book that might introduce me to the major historians themselves and their contributions?

[*:1bf072nu]stephen ambrose & doug brinkley, rise to globalism - it's 20th c., but you shouldn't pass it up

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/03/fr ... rving.html

[*:1bf072nu]e.h. carr, what is history? - is a seminal work in historiography

http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/What ... carr1.html

[*:1bf072nu]eric foner has several good books, pick based on your time, on the post-civil war

http://www.ericfoner.com/books/index.html

[*:1bf072nu]Ian Tyrrell, Historians in Public: The Practice of American History, 1890