It's quite the task, and not something I want to do within a period of 4 months ever again. There are some books on my lists that I honestly couldn't tell you much about at this point--some of the books were underwhelming. I feel that one of the lessons I was supposed to learn from this herculean task was how to tell compelling arguments from half-baked ones, and the underwhelming books helped me learn that lesson.
Since all I can think about right now relates in some way to 19th century U.S. history, and since I've read almost 300 books within a 4-month period, obviously I figured the best way to help connect you, my delightful readers, to my life is to mention a few of the best books I read. Even though I doubt many of you will ever read these books, the books below are the ones that were the most compelling for me and ones I think would be compelling for others. I don't know what your beach read wish list is. One of these books just might hit the spot. (Haha, I kid myself. But. I guess I never do know.)
19th Century U.S. History
Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860 (2011)
(For if you want a good overview of U.S. history that tells it from a western perspective and focuses on fur trading families.)
Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (2010)
David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2001)
(A history that explores the difference between history and memory, and gives insights into why the Civil War is such a controversial topic for Americans.)
W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
(Okay, so this one is v long but also v worth it.)
Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America (2002)
Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (Princeton: Princeton University, 2011)
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991)
Karl Jacoby, Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History (2008)
Margaret Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia (2009)
Jared Farmer. On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (2008)
(This one was particularly interesting to me, because it was the history of where I grew up--right at the foot of Mount Timpanagos.)
Jackson Lears, No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 (1981)
(I really, really, really liked this book. It is one of the reasons I think we're living in a "new Gilded Age." The disenchantment many people feel today is reminiscent of the same fears, concerns, and discontents with modernity in the late 19th century.)
[This is from a different book called What Hath God Wrought, by Daniel Walker Howe. It is dedicated to John Quincy Adams, and I get a kick out of that all of the time.]
Women's and Gender History
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, An Introduction (orig. 1976)
(If you read this, let me know and we'll discuss. I'm always up for discussing more Foucault.)
Joan Scott,
“Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” AHR 91 (1986): 1053-1075
Wendy Anne Warren, “‘The Cause of Her
Grief’: The Rape of a Slave in Early New England,” Journal of American History 93 (March 2007): 1031-49.
(One of the most moving articles I've read--I really enjoy reading meditations on historical methods, and this article does just that and more.)
Jeanne Boydston, Home
and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic(Oxford,
1990)
(I get that this book might not really be interesting to most folks out there, but it makes a very good argument as to why the household and the workplace have been and always will be interconnected.)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary,
1785-1812 (1991)
Tera W. Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the
Civil War (Cambridge, Mass., 1997)
(Such a good book. This is one of those history books I read and went, "Yes. I want to write history like this.")
Sarah Haley, No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity
(University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
(Harrowing book. But also so important.)
Global History (1850-present)
Jürgen Osterhammel. The Transformation of the World: a Global History of the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014).
(SUPER long. Like. You-could-break-your-toe-on-this-book it's so thick. But, if that's your thing, this gives a good overview of the 19th century.)
Dominic Lieven. Empire: The Russian Empire and its Rivals. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).
And, of course, there is this video. I probably cannot quote it on my exams, but believe me, I'm tempted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nllg_8hfIMs
=
ANYWAY. There is my nerdiness for you today. If you have/if you do end up reading any of these books, let me know. :)
