Reading suggestions for graduate students in history programs

[kotov]

Anyone have any recommendations for social history (particularly nationalism movements) and Cold War/Post-Cold War Eastern Europe?

For Romania, I'd recommend:

Adrian Cioroianu, On the Shoulders of Marx: An Introduction to Communism in Romania

Vladimir Tismaneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons

Rogers Brubaker, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town

I don't know as much about Hungary, but I enjoyed Tibor Meray's That Day in Budapest about the 1956 Revolution

In general, a good read is Anne Applebaum's GULAG: A History.

I can probably give you more about Romania specifically, though it'd mostly be about the immediate postwar period, since I'm working on an article about Romanian nationalism and the Soviet importation of forced labor from Eastern Europe.

[kotov]

Also, I'm doing a little poking around, since this topic is also interesting to me. I'll just keep a running list of what I can find.

Gareth Dale, Popular Protest in East Germany, 1945-1989.

Several good books on the Hungarian Revolution, though few of them seem focused on social history

Pedro Ramet, Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962-1991

[heyles]

I read Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History by Robert Kaplan for a grad class. Very well written (history/journalism, so much like a story) and brings it up through the present day in the new edition. Not a rigorous history text, but a great jumping off point for research and footnotes, as well as for general knowledge.

[oswic]

PhD, 3rd year (the year of comprehensive exams and dissertation prospectus, hopefully ABD by the end of the month).

these will mostly be useful to people who work on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nationalism, and class (if you subscribe to the EP thompson version of "class" as relational rather than structural).

rogers brubaker and frederick cooper, "beyond 'identity'" (2000). i think this was in the journal of social history? easy enough to track down on J-STOR, and a must-read for anyone that has ever considered putting the word "identity" in their academic writing.

charles tilly, durable inequality (1998). his model for tracing "group difference" over time (be it through ethnicity, religion, race, gender, etc.) is one of my favourites, since it's one of the few theoretical models to consider difference both relational and a function of material resources and economic power.

peter berger, the sacred canopy (1967). old school. a theoretical text on the internal functioning of religious systems. at times a little opaque, but super useful to anyone interested in how systems of ideology function and persist. those ideologies could be religious, or could be applied to racism, sexism, science, etc. also some bizarrely entertaining forays into sadism and masochism (for real).

fredrik barth. ethnic groups and boundaries (1969). foundational. useful for anyone working on any type of "group," not just studies of ethnicity.

judith butler. undoing gender (2004). also foundational. the idea of norms are huge for gender analysis and queer theory, but also for pretty much anyone that is studying people who occupy the social margins.

Thanks for posting this list. Looking forward to reading these!

[Lola Wants]

Does anyone have any suggestions for books about North Africa/Middle Eastern history, Islam in Africa, or Muslim women in North Africa/Middle East?

[Safferz]

Does anyone have any suggestions for books about North Africa/Middle Eastern history, Islam in Africa, or Muslim women in North Africa/Middle East?

Someone specializing in North Africa/Middle East history can probably give you the best suggestions for general histories, so here are some books that come to mind that deal with Islam in Africa and Muslim women in North Africa/Middle East:

Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: The Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

Leila Ahmed, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence from the Middle East to America

Lila Abu-Lughod, Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East

Janice Boddy, Civilizing Women: British Crusades in the Sudan

Randall Pouwels, Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African Coast, 800-1900

Randall Pouwels & Nehemia Levtzion (eds), History of Islam in Africa

B.G. Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods in Nineteenth Century Africa

David Robinson, Muslim Societies in African History

[oswic]

Does anyone have any suggestions for books about North Africa/Middle Eastern history, Islam in Africa, or Muslim women in North Africa/Middle East?

General Middle Eastern History

Nazih Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World

C. Ernest Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the Origins of Arab Nationalism

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples

Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age

Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Revolution

Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey

Edward Said, Orientalism

Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics

P.J. Vatikiotis, A History of Modern Egypt: from Muhammed Ali to Mubarak (4th edition)

Women and Gender in the Middle East/ North Africa

Lila Abu-Lughod, Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East

Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society

Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

Nadje Al-Ali, Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle East

Qasim Amin, The Liberation of Women and The New Woman - then read the criticisms

Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt

Beth Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society and the Press

Beth Baron, Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics

Nikki R. Keddie, Women in the Midde East: Past and Present

Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam (She's Moroccan. If you're interested in North Africa, read everything by her).

Valentine Moghadam, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East

Nawal El Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve

Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years

Guity Nashat and Judith Tucker, Women in the Middle East and North Africa

I tend to be Egypt-centric but I have recommendations for readings on women and gender in Iran as well as issues pertaining to "Third World Women" and global feminism. Feel free to PM me if you want more but this should be good start! Happy reading!

[Sigaba]

The purpose of this thread is for graduate students currently in M.A. and Ph.D. programs to suggest works that their peers may profit from reading. This thread aims to compliment the thread in which general guidance is offered but few, if any, specific titles are mentioned.

I respectfully request that all participants in this thread state clearly how far along you are in your program. This information can be as simple as "I'm in my second year of coursework," or "I'm taking my qualifying exams in two semesters."

I also respectfully request that participants differentiate between works they've read as a part of their general coursework and those works that are directly related to their fields of interest (i.e. areas that will form all or part of your qualifying exams) or one's master's report/thesis or one's dissertation.

I encourage participants to mention works that are off the beaten path. That is, works that are only tangentially related to your core interests but have influenced your views of the craft of history.

As historiography is about debate, please do mention works that offer viable alternatives/counterpoints to the suggestions of other graduate students. I do ask that you phrase recommendations in this category professionally. (That is, let's not re-enact the Maddox-Alperovitz brawl.)

To re-emphasize a couple of points in the OP.

[oswic]

To re-emphasize a couple of points in the OP.

Thanks for the reminder. For may part, I am in transition. Most of the titles I listed in general Middle Eastern/ North African History I read as part of my MA coursework in Middle Eastern History, although some I read for my thesis. I read the books pertaining to gender for an Independent Study during my MA and for seminar papers and my MA thesis.

[MidEastApp]

General Middle Eastern History

Nazih Ayubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World

C. Ernest Dawn, From Ottomanism to Arabism: Essays on the Origins of Arab Nationalism

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples

Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age

Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Revolution

Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey

Edward Said, Orientalism

Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics

P.J. Vatikiotis, A History of Modern Egypt: from Muhammed Ali to Mubarak (4th edition)

Women and Gender in the Middle East/ North Africa

Lila Abu-Lughod, Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East

Lila Abu-Lughod, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society

Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate

Nadje Al-Ali, Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle East

Qasim Amin, The Liberation of Women and The New Woman - then read the criticisms

Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt

Beth Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society and the Press

Beth Baron, Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics

Nikki R. Keddie, Women in the Midde East: Past and Present

Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam (She's Moroccan. If you're interested in North Africa, read everything by her).

Valentine Moghadam, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East

Nawal El Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve

Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years

Guity Nashat and Judith Tucker, Women in the Middle East and North Africa

I tend to be Egypt-centric but I have recommendations for readings on women and gender in Iran as well as issues pertaining to "Third World Women" and global feminism. Feel free to PM me if you want more but this should be good start! Happy reading!

I'm a second year masters student finishing my thesis and starting a PhD next fall. This is a pretty good list but I'll add to it.

Lara Deeb - Enchanted Modern

Lamia Zayzafoon - The Production of the Muslim Woman

*Joseph Massad - Desiring Arabs

Dror Ze'evi - Producing Desire

Khaled el-Rouayheb - Before Homosexuality

*Chase Robinson - Islamic Historiography

*Tarif Khalidi - Islamic Historiography

*Selim Deringil - Well Protected Domains

*Hisham Sharabi - Arab Intellectuals and the West

*Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian Identity

*Rashid Khalidi, et al. - The Origins of Arab Nationalism

Afsaneh Najmabadi - Women with Moustaches and Men without Beards

*Timothy Mitchell - Colonising Egypt

*Fred Donner - Narratives of Islamic Origins

* Tayyeb el-Hibri - Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography

* Samira Haj - Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition

* denote books read for a class in part or whole.

Also, while Lewis' book on Turkey is a classic, it is rather outdated these days but I'm not well-versed enough in Ottoman history to give a better example of overarching history for that field. Mernissi also needs to be read with a grain of salt in my mind. Also, Said's other works are useful to read.

[oswic]

I'm a second year masters student finishing my thesis and starting a PhD next fall. This is a pretty good list but I'll add to it.

Lara Deeb - Enchanted Modern

Lamia Zayzafoon - The Production of the Muslim Woman

*Joseph Massad - Desiring Arabs

Dror Ze'evi - Producing Desire

Khaled el-Rouayheb - Before Homosexuality

*Chase Robinson - Islamic Historiography

*Tarif Khalidi - Islamic Historiography

*Selim Deringil - Well Protected Domains

*Hisham Sharabi - Arab Intellectuals and the West

*Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian Identity

*Rashid Khalidi, et al. - The Origins of Arab Nationalism

Afsaneh Najmabadi - Women with Moustaches and Men without Beards

*Timothy Mitchell - Colonising Egypt

*Fred Donner - Narratives of Islamic Origins

* Tayyeb el-Hibri - Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography

* Samira Haj - Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition

* denote books read for a class in part or whole.

Also, while Lewis' book on Turkey is a classic, it is rather outdated these days but I'm not well-versed enough in Ottoman history to give a better example of overarching history for that field. Mernissi also needs to be read with a grain of salt in my mind. Also, Said's other works are useful to read.

MidEastApp, it looks like we have similar interests. I loved Ze'evi's Producing Desire and el-Rouayheb's Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World. Can't say I'm a fan of Massad's Desiring Arabs - I'd say to read him with a grain of salt. Omitting anything by Khalidi or Najmabadi, and Mitchell's Colonising Egypt were oversights on my part. I just started reading Samira Haj's Reconfiguing Islamic Tradition.

[MidEastApp]

MidEastApp, it looks like we have similar interests. I loved Ze'evi's Producing Desire and el-Rouayheb's Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World. Can't say I'm a fan of Massad's Desiring Arabs - I'd say to read him with a grain of salt. Omitting anything by Khalidi or Najmabadi, and Mitchell's Colonising Egypt were oversights on my part. I just started reading Samira Haj's Reconfiguing Islamic Tradition.

I focus a lot on sexual identity construction, so I lean towards that with interests in historiography and "modernity." There are some stuff in Arabic and French that I can list but I'm not too sure who they would be of use to on the forum. For Massad, I agree due in part to politics and my own experiences/understanding of movements in a Middle Eastern country. I'd say more, but I'm not up for having people know who I am on the internet and our field is a small one.

Oh, and Salibi's House of Many Mansions is a must read. As is Thompson's Colonial Citizens (I'm reading it now after being told to for months) and Puar's Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times.

[oswic]

I'd say more, but I'm not up for having people know who I am on the internet and our field is a small one.

It certainly is! I sent you a PM if you're interested in continuing our conversation privately. If not, I understand and I'm sure our paths will cross at some point along the way. Best of luck to you!

[Lola Wants]

Thanks Safferz and Oswic! Being Egypt-centric is perfectly fine Oswic, you can't help where your interests lie. I am very interested in this region for grad school (Ph.D). Unfortunately, the school I'm attending for my master's (I'm a first year student) does not offer many classes on this region and I would like to gain as much knowledge as I can about the area and the topics I'm interested in before I apply. Thanks again. I am truly grateful.

[BCHistory]

Also, anybody interested in Slavery needs to read Walter Johnson- Soul by Soul: Life in the Antebellum Slave Market

I agree, but I think that Steven Deyle's Carry Me Back is just as important a book on the domestic slave trade, which appeared 5 years after Soul By Soul, and one that should be read alongside Johnson's.

I'm in my second year (of three) of coursework, by the way.

Edited April 16, 2012 by BCEmory08

[BCHistory]

Some more for 19th- and 20th- century Americanists. The list is by no means exhaustive but mainly represents books and a few articles that I've found helpful and/or important historiographically. Also, for the sake of time, I have not included subtitles or journal titles, but these should all be easy to find.

Patrick Allitt, Catholic Converts

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis

Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization

Jeanne Boydston, Home and Work

Elsa Barkley Brown, "'What Has Happened Here,'" and "Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere"

Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith

Margot Canaday, The Straight State

Dan Carter, The Politics of Rage

David Cecelski and Timothy Tyson, eds., Democracy Betrayed

Katherine Charron, Freedom's Teacher

George Chauncey, Gay New York

Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal, and A Consumers' Republic

Patricia Cline Cohen, The Murder of Helen Jewett

Karen Cox, Dreaming of Dixie

Jane Dailey, Glenda Gilmore, and Bryant Simon, eds., Jumpin' Jim Crow

Brian DeLay, War of a Thousand Deserts

Steven Deyle, Carry Me Back

John Dittmer, Local People

Jay Dolan, The Immigrant Church, Catholic Revivalism, The American Catholic Experience, and In Search of an American Catholicism

W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America

Drew Gilpin Faust, James Henry Hammond and the Old South

Crystal Feimster, Southern Horrors

Barbara Fields, "Ideology and Race in American History," and "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America"

Leon Fink, The Maya of Morganton

Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America

Eric Foner, Reconstruction

Gaines Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the Plantation Household

Eugene Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery, and Roll, Jordan, Roll

Lori Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence

Lawrence Glickman, A Living Wage

Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage

Kenneth Greenberg, Honor and Slavery

R. Marie Griffith, Born Again Bodies

Steven Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet

Steven Hahn and Jonathan Prude, eds., The Countryside in the Age of Capitalist Transformation

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past"

Pekka Hamalainen, Comanche Empire

Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity

Christine Heyrman, Southern Cross

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, "African-American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race"

Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought

Hassan Jeffries, Bloody Lowndes

Philip Jenkins, Hoods and Shirts, Cold War at Home, The Next Christendom, and The New Anti-Catholicism

Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper's Millennium

Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias

Robin D.G. Kelley, "'We Are Not What We Seem'"

Adriane Lentz-Smith, Freedom Struggles

Robert Korstad and Nelson Lichtenstein, "Opportunities Found and Lost"

Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union

Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds

Micki McElya, Clinging to Mammy

Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors

John McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, and Catholicism and American Freedom

Danielle McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street

James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

Tiya Miles, Ties That Bind

Michele Mitchell, Righteous Propagation

Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom

Mark Neely, The Fate of Liberty, and "Was the Civil War a Total War?"

Stephen Norwood, "Bogalusa Burning"

Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street, and Thank You, St. Jude

Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally

Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom

Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion

Steven Reich, "Soldiers of Democracy"

Seth Rockman, Scraping By

David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness

Anne Rose, Transcendentalism as a Social Movement

Willie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction

Steven Rosswurm, The FBI and the Catholic Church

Adam Rothman, Slave Country

Leslie Schwalm, A Hard Fight for We

Joan Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis"

Charles Sellers, The Market Revolution

Susan Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

Christine Stansell, City of Women

Melvyn Stokes and Stephen Conway, eds., The Market Revolution in America

Thomas Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, and Sweet Land of Liberty

Patricia Sullivan, Lift Every Voice

E.P. Thompson, "The Moral Economy of the Crowd in the Eighteenth Century"

Grant Wacker, Heaven Below

Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman?

Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic, and The Rise of American Democracy

Nan Woodruff, American Congo

C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson, Origins of the New South, and The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor

Susan Zaeske, Signatures of Citizenship

Andrew Zimmerman, Alabama in Africa

Edited April 16, 2012 by BCEmory08

[BCHistory]

One of the more challenging phases of my coursework was a three-week sequence in which a professor assigned Roll, Jordan, Roll, Battle Cry of Freedom, and the full version of Reconstruction.

That's rough. The toughest three-week sequence I've had (thus far) was Market Revolution (Sellers), Rise of American Democracy (Wilentz), and What Hath God Wrought (Howe).

[Conmel]

Thought I'd bump this. I'm in between degrees, have received my MA and hoping to start a PHD program next fall. My field is Middle Eastern and Islamic History. Here are some of the best books I read during my MA:

 

Kamal Salibi - A House of Many Mansions (mentioned above I believe)

Roy Mottahedeh - The Mantle of the Prophet (probably the best book on the region I've read, even though Iran is not one of my chief areas)

Marshall Hodgson - The Venture of Islam 3 Vols. (classic but heavy work - the opening 90-100 pages of volume 1 are especially important for grad students in this field)

Barbara Metcalf - Islamic Revival in British India (not strictly Middle East, it covers the rise of the Deoband school and its rivals in British India)

Elie Kedourie - The Chatham House Version (controversial, probably not on many reading lists in American academia anymore but worth a read for a different perspective on the post-WW1 region. If nothing else, it is really well written)

Fred Halliday - Arabia Without Sultans (not strictly written as a work of history, however he's probably been the biggest influence on my approach and this is his classic)

Yezid Sayigh - Armed Struggle and the Search for a State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (a topic I tend to stay well away from, but this is one of the finest books on any ME-related topic)

 

There are also some non-academic style books I'd recommend:

 

Max Rodenbeck - Cairo: The City Victorious

Wilfred Thesiger - Arabian Sands

Robert Byron - Road to Oxiana

Bruce Clark - Twice a Stranger (about the Greek-Turkish population exchange)

 

I'm sure there's a few more I'll post when they come to mind.

[Conmel]

 

I'm sure there's a few more I'll post when they come to mind.

 

Here they are:

 

Ibn Khaldun - Al-Muqaddimah (this is another classic text that all grad students in the Middle East field will encounter at some stage)

Yitzhak Nakash - The Shi'is of Iraq (type of book I wish I'd wrote)

Cemal Kafadar - Between Two Worlds (origins of the Ottoman state)

 

and a personal travel favorite:

 

William Dalrymple - From the Holy Mountain (travels from Mt. Athos to southern Egypt discussing the decline of Eastern Christianity)

Edited December 4, 2013 by Conmel

[CageFree]

I'm a 2nd year Ph.D. student, almost done with coursework. I work on Latin America but dabble in American History too, and my interests are mostly on gender and race. I'm almost done with my coursework.

 

Some of my recommendations:

 

Latin America/Caribbean:

Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico, Gil Joseph

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot

The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America,  Nancy Leys Stepan

Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico, Maria Elena Martinez

Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770, James Sweet

Partners in Conflict: The Politics of Gender, Sexuality, and Labor in the Chilean Agrarian Reform, Heidi Tinsman

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Eduardo Galeano

Peru's Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640, Steve Stern

A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture, Marguerite Feitlowitz

 

U.S. Gender and Women's History:

Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic, Jeanne Boydston

Rape and Sexual Power in Early America, Sharon Block

Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940, George Chauncey

Sex Among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender and Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730-1830, Clare Lyons

 

Other:

Maus, Vol. I and II, Art Spiegelman

[kdavid]

Anyone involved in modern Chinese history want to share their recommendations?