Whatcha reading?

[Fianna]

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!

 

That's close to what we have. My two major field committee faculty each worked with me to develop a list of 50-odd books in the field, and each will give me two questions. I get to pick one question from each, write on it (2 hours, no materials) and cross my fingers. I'm talking out the field readings with one of the professors now, so I'll have an idea of the type of question and the scope. He's prone to being very broad. The example he gave me was, for a 20th century exam he gave, "Was the Progressive era progressive?"

 

Out of curiosity, how many of the current MA students are doing comp exams?

[Josh J.]

I just started reading Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, for a review essay that I am writing for a course on Religion and the Civil War.  It is actually a page turner, I'm quite surprised...that, and I've actually already gotten a good laugh out of the first few pages.  

[ToomuchLes]

I just heard Harper Lee is publishing a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird"  called "Go Set A Watchman."

 If anyone is interested, Amazon has pre-orders available $17. The story takes place some 20 years after the events in the first book. 

[Chiqui74]

I'm currently reading a book edited by one of my POIs, but if I don't get into that school, I'm going to sabotage the reading!  I kid, I kid...

[ashiepoo72]

I don't think I'll ever read that sequel LeventeL. To Kill a Mockingbird has taken on nearly mythical and mystical proportions in my soul, and I'm worried the sequel may inadvertently knock it off it's well-deserved pedestal. Let me know if it's a worthy addition to the legacy of Atticus Finch.

[Annalistasaxo89]

Right now I am reading Heinrich Mitteis' Der Staat des Hohen Mittelalter which is something like a German take on Strayer's On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. It is really interesting because it presents a comparative approach with a focus on Germany, though covering Scandinavia, the Iberian peninsula, central Europe, and Italy, from the Carolingian period onto the 1300s. I actually enjoy his prose style as compared to some of the other German historians I am reading now.

[Heimat Historian]

Annalistasaxo, you're an early modern Germanist, right? 

[Annalistasaxo89]

Annalistasaxo, you're an early modern Germanist, right? 

 High medieval Germany though I also have an interest in that period as well. 

[dr. t]

Right now I am reading Heinrich Mitteis' Der Staat des Hohen Mittelalter which is something like a German take on Strayer's On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. It is really interesting because it presents a comparative approach with a focus on Germany, though covering Scandinavia, the Iberian peninsula, central Europe, and Italy, from the Carolingian period onto the 1300s. I actually enjoy his prose style as compared to some of the other German historians I am reading now.

 

"Enjoyable German prose" is not a concept with which I am familiar

[Annalistasaxo89]

Perhaps as enjoyable as possible due to the standard opaqueness of German academic writing.  I always wonder who one should blame for this. Perhaps Hegel?

[Heimat Historian]

Or Kant

[dr. t]

Perhaps as enjoyable as possible due to the standard opaqueness of German academic writing.  I always wonder who one should blame for this. Perhaps Hegel?

 

Fun story: my supervisor can trace his intellectual lineage, Doktorvater to Doktorvater, back to Hegel.

 

Further fun story: I read an 19th century commentary on a 17th century apocalyptic text which interpreted a passage to mean that either Hegel or one of his disciples would be the Antichrist.

[danwaterfield]

Tintin and the secret of literature, by Tom McCarthy. It basically deconstructs the texts via Freud, Derrida, et al, arguing that, in some cases, Tintin is better than literature as a way of navigating signs and discourse.

 

Also fun fact: Haddock is an illegitimate descendent of Charles XIV.

[HistoryGypsy]

I've been preparing for my PhD program by reading Daniel Boorstin's The Americans trilogy.  And then, for fun, as much of Terry Pratchett as I can possibly cram in!

[Sigaba]

Fun story: my supervisor can trace his intellectual lineage, Doktorvater to Doktorvater, back to Hegel.

 

 

Which means that you can too!

[dr. t]

Which means that you can too!

 

Nah, he's not advising my diss. Strict membership rules, that club.

[Sigaba]

Nah, he's not advising my diss. Strict membership rules, that club.

 

I understand your point. You are probably right. And I respectfully disagree. FWIW, what I would like to see from you telkanuru is more swagger. That includes embracing, to the point of annoyance, your academic pedigree.

 

Here's my POV. My intellectual inheritance/linage does not just include the professors on my committee, but also those who have taught me the craft. So while my areas of specialization and many of my tastes are "traditional" when it comes to history, I also claim as mine many of the sensibilities of those radical upstart historians  who turned the profession on its head with their radical approaches and politics.

 

(Okay, this will definitely be my last cup of coffee today.  )

[dr. t]

I understand your point. You are probably right. And I respectfully disagree. FWIW, what I would like to see from you telkanuru is more swagger. That includes embracing, to the point of annoyance, your academic pedigree.

 

Here's my POV. My intellectual inheritance/linage does not just include the professors on my committee, but also those who have taught me the craft. So while my areas of specialization and many of my tastes are "traditional" when it comes to history, I also claim as mine many of the sensibilities of those radical upstart historians  who turned the profession on its head with their radical approaches and politics.

 

(Okay, this will definitely be my last cup of coffee today.  )

 

If I end up at Brown, one of his students will be on my diss committee, so I'll get there 

 

[virmundi]

Right now I am reading Heinrich Mitteis' Der Staat des Hohen Mittelalter which is something like a German take on Strayer's On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State. It is really interesting because it presents a comparative approach with a focus on Germany, though covering Scandinavia, the Iberian peninsula, central Europe, and Italy, from the Carolingian period onto the 1300s. I actually enjoy his prose style as compared to some of the other German historians I am reading now.

 

Annalistasaxo89,

 

Out of curiosity, does the book end with 1300, or at some point in the 1300s? What is the terminus of the book? It is on my list of things to get around to, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to do so -- I'd appreciate your insight if you are willing to share it.

[virmundi]

"Enjoyable German prose" is not a concept with which I am familiar

 

Haha! I hear you. I will say, however, that Conrad Ferdinand Meyer's "Plautus im Nonnenkloster" is brilliant, both in terms of prose, story, and style. It follows Poggio Bracciolini in his discovery of Plautus while he is at the Council of Constance, and is stylistically a masterpiece.

 

I am currently reading a book about mills in Late Medieval England. Ergh.

[Chiqui74]

I recently picked up "Lies My Teacher Told Me," but I haven't started it yet. It's totally pop history, but I've heard good things about it.

[Heimat Historian]

It's an entertaining read Chiqui.  His sequel is good too about roadside commemorations.  On another note, I'm impressed by all the medievalist/early modernists on these boards.  There are a lot of ya'll. 

[danwaterfield]

Now moved on to Les Particules Elementaires, to brush up my literary french. Amazing book in a 'I don't know whether to be enthralled or disgusted' sort of way. 

[kotov]

Now I'm waiting for my copy of ,,Chestiunea Evreiasca" în documente militare române, 1941-1944 by Ottmar Trasca to arrive from Romania...so maybe I'll see it before April. In the meantime, working my way through România si Transnistria: Problema Holocaustului, edited by Viorel Achim and Constantin Iordachi, the former of whom I met at a conference in London last month. #namedropping

 

Still picking through the book I mentioned in my last post as well, but mostly just for taking notes at this point. 

[HistoryGypsy]

I love this particular forum -- thanks to you guys, my "Need/Want to Read" list just got several more entries!  Anyone here specialize in 19th century America and have a favorite they'd like to share?  I've got an over 30-hour bus ride coming up in a couple of months (and probably several hours in airports at that time, too -- I'm traveling to a VERY remote area near the China/Burma border with some of my high schoolers) and I'd love some good monographs to take along.