synthla Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 I've noticed our history forums have been on the slow side recently... probably due to the long weekend and a dearth of new admissions info. I've been catching up on some reading, and as someone who enjoys reading outside their primary field of interest now and then, I thought it might be fun for people to share what they've recently been reading in their field. So what's the last history-related book you've read, no matter how common or obscure? Me? Read The French Reformation by Mark Greengrass yesterday. A short work (80 pp), published in the 1980s. I think it would be a good mini-survey for a reader who had no foundation in the area, but ironically, it went too deep for the lay reader and not deep enough for the serious historian of the era. Repeatedly stated general observations followed by a few examples that were supposed to illuminate the broader observation, but often failed to place the specific cases in a context sufficient for the reader to understand why these selected examples were more important indicators of the greater events than others would have been. I still pulled some useful nuggets of information, but wouldn't put it at the top of any reading lists.
limeinthecoconut Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 I tend to read start a couple of books, and leave them lying around until I find the inclination to finish them. So right now, the books that I have started are: 1) Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean 2) Mark Elvin's Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China 3) Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism Yes, slow, slow board.
Auzzfest Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 Synth, thanks for giving me something to do.....the lack of news is killing me!!!! I am typically reading three books off and on at the same time: something history related (Latin America), something on current events (side obsession), and then something lighter. My reading moods change constantly so I like to have different flavors to grab for. Last ones I finished were: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski, and The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. The Road is a beautiful Cormac McCarthy novel, which I think is coming out as a movie soon. Definitely a weekend read if you just want to burn a few days while waiting for app decisions. Really couldn't put it down. The Soccer War is also a pleasant read, Its definitely a history book, but reads more like a journal. Excellent first hand accounts of revolution and war across the globe in the 2nd half of the 20th century. At times it reads a little like Galeano..poetic yet informative. And Zakaria's work is a great pick up if you want to get a better grasp on developments in China, India, and other powerful up and coming economies. He always does a great job of intertwining history, IR, economics, traditional culture, and contemporary culture, to simplify large currents in International politics. Though maybe not as good as his previous book, The Future of Freedom, its an impressive look into where the world may be heading. And don't let the title throw you off, he's not preaching about the demise of America, rather the rise of some other countries. I respect his opinion and research and think he provides a balanced forecast. Currently I am working on A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power, Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left by Nikolas Kozloff and desperately need a light read, I would love some suggestions. Anyways I think it would be great for people to share any recommended reading, weather it be history related or not. Anything to burn the time.
jfree Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 I'm finishing my MA Thesis, so obviously I'm pouring over all of my secondary sources for it. Right now, I'm focusing on Chad Montrie, To Save the Land and People: A History of Opposition to Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia, and Thomas Kiffmeyer, Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty. I picked up The Road last summer with some idea on what it was about, and--as a father--couldn't quite bring myself to make it past the first sentence. Someday when I need a good cry, I'll dig it out and weep it up.
synthla Posted February 16, 2009 Author Posted February 16, 2009 Interesting - I tend to be a serial sort of reader... one book at a time, finishing each before starting another, except that occasionally I will put fiction and non-fiction on parallel tracks; mostly because I like to read before bed and I can get further with fiction before becoming too drowsy and falling asleep. Lately I've been sort of obsessive about reading tons of history - I mean that's not new in one sense because otherwise, why would I be pursuing a Ph.D in the area, but on on the other hand I'm coming back to academia after a significant break and feel like I need to lay a new, stronger foundation with which to reenter school so as to avoid feeling hopelessly behind those who might be coming straight from undergrad. At the same time, to the extent that anyone else out there is feeling the same way, I discussed this with a professor who sort of put my mind at ease Auzzfest: The Road has been on my list for a while - I haven't always enjoyed McCarthy's other works (Blood Meridian left my pretty cold, for example), but I've always had a soft spot for post-apocalyptic fiction. If you want a light (but lengthy) read, I finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson recently. I think it requires a love for a certain kind of humor, but you'll know within 50 pages whether you're going to love the book. It did drag toward the end (mental fatigue from keeping up with the wit, more than anything), but vastly entertaining. Seahistory: What do you think of Lasch's work? It's been on my list as well, for years, and its central themes still seem quite relevant to our society nearly 30 years later, but is its age showing at all?
misterpat Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 I've been avoiding History since application-time, since I figuerd I'll be up to my ears in it for the rest of my life. But in the fall, the last book I read for my field was: Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right Oh, and if anyone wants to read a great article I read earlier that will only take a bit over an hour, read "The Idiocy in American Studies" by Steven Watts. It's from '91, and talks about the intellectual fashion of post-structuralism. It's one of the few articles in a scholarly journal I've encountered that actually made me laugh out loud.
Louiselab Posted February 17, 2009 Posted February 17, 2009 Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L. It's still one of my favorites, and I definitely like it more than Lassiter's Silent Majority. Good article: The Cold War Debate Continues by John Earl Haynes. It's wonderful because at the end he starts attacking revisionist historians and you know he'd been sitting around waiting for those Moscow archives to open so he could stick to the commies. I love it when scholars get polemical. Book: The Spaces of the Modern City: Imaginaries, politics and everyday life. edited by Gyan Prakash and Kevin M. Kruse. I usually have the class reading and then one book on the side that I read during work/train ride. This is pretty good, since it's very "cutting edge" if you will, because they use a lot of transnational studies and comparisons.
synthla Posted February 17, 2009 Author Posted February 17, 2009 Lots of good ideas for future reading outside the field in which I'll be reading for the rest of my life; thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond so far. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I'd also be interested in hearing if there are any favorite articles or other texts in German or French out there. Always looking for new pieces with which to work on language skills.
fortiesgirl Posted February 17, 2009 Posted February 17, 2009 Vichy et l'eternel feminin by Francine Muel-Dreyfus Both recommendations are excellent books. I used both throughout the duration of writing my Master's thesis. Muel-Dreyfus analyzes the legislation and "symbolic violence" used by the Vichy Regime to essentially keep women in check. She demonstrates how the regime used no-nonsense policies to view and thus treat "less than" desirable women, i.e., single women, unmarried mothers, liberated women, or others who did not fit the desired "barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen look," as the Nazis (and colloborationist French) treated the Jews and other undesirables in Europe. Reign of Virtue:Mobilizing Gender in Vichy France by Miranda Pollard This book is along the same lines of thinking and scope and that of Muel-Dreyfus, but Pollard uses propaganda to support her argument, whereas Muel-Dreyfus' argument is from the perspective of legislation and policy. Fascinating book and research to boot. I think I've read it three times. Auschwitz et Apre~s by Charlotte Delbo This book changed my life. I discovered it as an undergraduate when I went hunting for a French departmental honors topic and I have continued to do work on this powerful memoir. Her story speaks to me on a very personal level because both of my maternal grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust. The book has since been published in English, but the original version in the author's original tongue gives a more complete and accurate testimony to her experience. I've read both versions several times and I prefer the French. I hate to sound trite, but some things just can't be translated. THanks for all the recommendations. Perhaps I can tackle one or two of them over spring break.
ohheygradschool Posted February 17, 2009 Posted February 17, 2009 I'm working through Into Our Own Hands: The Women's Health Movement in the United States, 1969-1990 by Sandra Morgen right now.
baxter Posted February 17, 2009 Posted February 17, 2009 The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America, by Taussig (technically not history [anthropology], but still an excellent read)
misterpat Posted February 17, 2009 Posted February 17, 2009 Currently I am working on A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power, Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left by Nikolas Kozloff and desperately need a light read, I would love some suggestions. If you haven't read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, it would make for excellent light reading. Few books have made me laugh so hard.
slawkenbergius Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 I've just gotten through Kant's First and Third Critiques, but the last history book I read was The History of the Franks by Gregory, bishop of Tours (ca. 600 AD). It's actually quite refreshingly chaotic, and Gregory injects himself into the narrative whenever he can, which is hilarious.
synthla Posted February 18, 2009 Author Posted February 18, 2009 I've just gotten through Kant's First and Third Critiques, but the last history book I read was The History of the Franks by Gregory, bishop of Tours (ca. 600 AD). It's actually quite refreshingly chaotic, and Gregory injects himself into the narrative whenever he can, which is hilarious. I've actually been planning to do some reading in the late antiquity period and I have an enduring interest in the formation of the French state and Frankish identity; I haven't yet read the Historia Francorum - is there a particular edition you used? Sounds great.
slawkenbergius Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 I've actually been planning to do some reading in the late antiquity period and I have an enduring interest in the formation of the French state and Frankish identity; I haven't yet read the Historia Francorum - is there a particular edition you used? Sounds great. I read the crappy, half-abridged Brehaut translation. (It didn't bother me, since I was just reading it for fun and I don't think I could have taken another story about how Gundoric slew Childebert or whatever.) I blogged a bit about it here.
MDLee Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 Am in the process of reading up on Marx for a historiography class. Books on the origins of Amnesty International...oh yes, and a guilty read about the history of legal prostitution in the state of Nevada. Gotta stay interested SOMEHOW!
hooleeya Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 I just finished Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages which I found interesting from an historiographical perspective, though of course writing history in "sweeping brushstrokes" would never be acceptable now. I'm also going through a couple of Bynum's books again for thesis research.
synthla Posted February 18, 2009 Author Posted February 18, 2009 I just finished Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages which I found interesting from an historiographical perspective, though of course writing history in "sweeping brushstrokes" would never be acceptable now. I'm also going through a couple of Bynum's books again for thesis research. If you're interested (and I apologize if I'm just repeating something that you already know), there is a newer translation, Autumn of the Middle Ages, that represents Huizinga's full work; Waning was actually an abridgement of the original. Have you read Inventing the Middle Ages by Norman Cantor? It is sort of a broad introduction to the historiography of the middle ages, but, supposedly, discusses Huizinga, R.W. Southern, and other 20th century historians in the context of how they created our modern notion of the middle ages. I haven't read it yet myself, but it's on the to-do list.
slawkenbergius Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 If you're interested (and I apologize if I'm just repeating something that you already know), there is a newer translation, Autumn of the Middle Ages, that represents Huizinga's full work; Waning was actually an abridgement of the original. Have you read Inventing the Middle Ages by Norman Cantor? It is sort of a broad introduction to the historiography of the middle ages, but, supposedly, discusses Huizinga, R.W. Southern, and other 20th century historians in the context of how they created our modern notion of the middle ages. I haven't read it yet myself, but it's on the to-do list. I was just about to recommend Southern! To my knowledge, Huizinga is now considered more like literature than history, though I'm no expert on this field. Umberto Eco also has a cool essay from the '80s called "The Return of the Middle Ages," where he talks about the various forms of neomedievalism.
slawkenbergius Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 Incidentally, I'm really impressed with the casual secondary-source reading you people do. I find it difficult to get through modern secondary sources unless there's a concrete project I'm working on, when I can just power through a stack of books looking for intersections with my topic. If I'm not working on anything, I generally just read classics.
synthla Posted February 18, 2009 Author Posted February 18, 2009 Incidentally, I'm really impressed with the casual secondary-source reading you people do. I find it difficult to get through modern secondary sources unless there's a concrete project I'm working on, when I can just power through a stack of books looking for intersections with my topic. If I'm not working on anything, I generally just read classics. I was about to say the opposite; your focus on classics is impressive to me. My current focus on secondary-source reading is based on the fact that I'm nearly a decade out from studying history in undergrad and I'm regrounding myself in the historiography of my period so that I don't go into grad school without a firm understanding of the various perspectives, arguments, etc., that have been made. I'm looking forward to getting back to the classics, but I feel this need to be familiar with what has already been said. At the same time, I've talked to professors about this, and I don't think there is an expectation that new grad students have such a solid foundation - indeed, if I have one thing going for me, it's a decent memory, and I think one professor was sort of surprised about the number of titles, names and central theses I was rattling off over the course of our conversation, and told me that most students wouldn't be entering with such a broad perspective on the field.
misterpat Posted February 18, 2009 Posted February 18, 2009 Incidentally, I'm really impressed with the casual secondary-source reading you people do. I find it difficult to get through modern secondary sources unless there's a concrete project I'm working on, when I can just power through a stack of books looking for intersections with my topic. If I'm not working on anything, I generally just read classics. I feel the same way. Even when I was reading stuff this fall before filling out applications, I typically got 1/4 or 1/3 through a history book and would then neglect it for leisure reading. Plus, not having anyone to discuss those books with sucks a lot of the fun out of it.
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