Whatcha reading?

[a.rev]

I've actually heard good things about The Historian, both from family/friends and online. I'll have to add it to my ever-expanding "to read" list!

Edited February 4, 2015 by a.rev

[KBHistorian]

I've actually heard good things about The Historian, both from faily and friends and online. I'll have to add it to my ever-expanding "to read" list!

That's the problem the "to read" list is massive!

But I really like it. And even though it does deal with Vlad the Impaler/Dracula it isn't gory at all!!

[Heimat Historian]

::hears that the Historian isn't gory, mentally scratches it off his list::

[ashiepoo72]

Do any of you guys read comics? I just got volume 2 of the new Magneto (okay I'm super nerdy right now, don't judge me!!) and I LOVE IT. I usually don't like superhero/Marvel-type comics, but this is so bloody and morally ambiguous that it's right up my alley.

[Heimat Historian]

I read comics Ashiepoo, not very often but every now and then I get pulled back into it.

[a.rev]

I don't read comics often but I will this weekend. My friend just sent me two issues of something called Bitch Planet, it sounds like it's right up my alley. If you're interested comics/graphic novels you should check out Oxford University Press' graphic novels that they've been putting out. I think there's three now, Inhuman Traffick, Mendoza the Jew, and Abina and the Important Men. I met the gentleman who wrote Abina earlier this year and he talked about how he just randomly ran accross this transript from a court case in the archives and had this idea to turn it into a graphic novel. They're pretty neat. If you're a TA I think you can request an instructor's copy through the Oxford website.

[ToomuchLes]

Proud owner of the first 19 Walking Dead comics 

[ashiepoo72]

I'm so jealous. I'm so overwhelmed by the length of that series that I won't even start it haha

 

I do love East of West, though. You should check it out. The artwork is fab.

Edited February 6, 2015 by ashiepoo72

[stillalivetui]

I'd start with The "Good War" in American Memory by John Bodnar and work my way from there. I know you want to focus on the bomb, but a good sense of how Americans remember the entire war is useful for contextualizing the collective memory (and mismemory) of the atomic bomb.

 

Had class with Bodnar last semester. Awesome dude. 

[ashiepoo72]

I guess I'll live vicariously through you, stillalivetui! I wanted to work with Bodnar, but he mentioned being close to retirement. I've loved all the books I've read by him. Just finished The Transplanted.

[ashiepoo72]

I don't read comics often but I will this weekend. My friend just sent me two issues of something called Bitch Planet, it sounds like it's right up my alley. If you're interested comics/graphic novels you should check out Oxford University Press' graphic novels that they've been putting out. I think there's three now, Inhuman Traffick, Mendoza the Jew, and Abina and the Important Men. I met the gentleman who wrote Abina earlier this year and he talked about how he just randomly ran accross this transript from a court case in the archives and had this idea to turn it into a graphic novel. They're pretty neat. If you're a TA I think you can request an instructor's copy through the Oxford website.

 

Thanks for the tip! Those sound pretty sweet!

[Fianna]

This weekend I'm reading Hobsbawm's Empire and Industry for my seminar and also reading/organizing for my comps exams.

 

Late at night, when I'm too information saturated to read anything that heavy, I've been reading the new annotated Laura Ingalls Wilder autobiography.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Fianna

[Way Out East]

American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kaufmann

 

Three Empires on the Nile: The Victorian Jihad 1869-1899 by Dominic Green

[a.rev]

Fianna, how are you liking Empire and Industry? It sounds like a book I might need to grab for some research. Also, good luck on comps! Mine are March 6th and I'm going insane. :/

[kblooms]

Reading Team of Rivals for fun, wonderful book in the mind of someone who's area of expertise is 2000 before Lincoln

[dr. t]

Neil Gaiman's new collection of short stories, Trigger Warning.

[ashiepoo72]

If you're interested in a more scholarly approach to Lincoln's political genius and cabinet in-fighting, check out Michael Vorenberg's Final Freedom. It covers just the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, but it's very well done. I think Vorenberg's a prof at Brown.

[sankofa]

"There Goes My Everything" by Dr. Jason Sokol. Good read.

[Way Out East]

If you're interested in a more scholarly approach to Lincoln's political genius and cabinet in-fighting, check out Michael Vorenberg's Final Freedom. It covers just the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, but it's very well done. I think Vorenberg's a prof at Brown.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll add it to my list of books to try and find for cheap on Amazon. I love political maneuvering. 

[Fianna]

Fianna, how are you liking Empire and Industry? It sounds like a book I might need to grab for some research. Also, good luck on comps! Mine are March 6th and I'm going insane. :/

 

I'm really enjoying it. His preface and intro are really great at laying out his project. It's reading a little dated, but that's expected. I really should be further in to it, but I've been in comps reading hell all weekend.

Good luck on yours - mine are the 4th and 6th, so we can commiserate together that week.

 

What subjects are you taking? We do two major field questions, so mine are Native American and long (very, very long) 19th century with a focus on race and law.

[a.rev]

I will totally commiserate with you, I think I'm driving my husband insane at the moment haha.

 

Oh my gosh, I'm super jealous. We pick 5 courses we've taken and ask the professor to write a question. Then we have to study the readings and formulate a response. The day of the exam is when we find out which 3 our dir. of grad studies has chosen and we 4 hours to write on them. One has to be an American history course, another a world history, and then a wild card. I've chosen Africa, slavery, and world history, the early republic, modern East Asia, Latinos in the U.S. South, and a teaching Global History seminar (basically new world vs. old world history). I'm positive I'll get Africa and early republic, but the rest is up to chance.

[ashiepoo72]

Oh man, that's really rough! For my exam (singular!) we have to read a list of about 80 books. Since I'm a modern Americanist, my list ranges from 1877 to the present. We have no idea what the questions will be until we sit for the exam and end up writing 3 essays in 4 hours.

I have this recurrent nightmare that I fail the exam, don't get my MA and have to turn down PhD offers. It's making me extremely motivated to study!

[a.rev]

Eighty?! Do you at least get to bring a list with you? I almost prefer mine just because I won't get Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World mixed up with Gendering the Borderlands. Good luck! I'm with you on the nightmares, although knowing whether or not I'll be attending school next fall would definitely be the motivation needed to push through this kind of stuff. Most of my friends, and some of my professors, have basically said it's more of a rite of passage. I've only heard of one person in recent years that flat out failed comps at my school, and it was my amazing and supportive thesis chair that failed the guy. The same one that I picked two questions by, so I'm a little panicky. 

[ashiepoo72]

No list, but we are only expected to know author's last name and the first part of the title, so I guess that's something haha there are about 4-6 books per section (like Progressive Era, Women and Gender, World War II, etc), and the questions are written to focus on a particular section, though obviously some books can be used in many sections. That makes it a little bit easier to digest. I'm writing a précis per section to map the historiographical threads between the books, which I think will be useful (I hope!!)

Do you guys get a list? Im sure all of us will get through this! One of my friends failed the first time he took it, but he only read like 10 of the books so it's his own fault haha

[a.rev]

No we don't. Now that I think about it, between course readings, research papers, and articles we're probably expected to read roughly the same number of books. One of my professors let me base my question on the research paper I wrote for her course, which was really sweet of her but I don't think they'll choose her question simply because she's been on sabbatical this year for an illness.