The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I recently delved into Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson for a grant I'm a part of, and I am enjoying it a lot. I feel like McPherson brings everything together in an interesting way - it's not just politics and battles.

I am wondering - has anyone read any of the other books in the Oxford History of the United States series? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_History_of_the_United_States

# ¿ Jan 16, 2012 23:15

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:13

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

AeroZeppelin posted:

I read Battle Cry for a grant I'm doing in Grad School as well. Are you apart of the TAH grant?

Yes! Pretty sad that the funding is getting pulled from them.

# ¿ May 7, 2012 01:03

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I am going to be teaching US history 1860s-Modern day, for the first time, next year (11th graders). I really want to teach it from the essential question, "what does it mean to be American, and how does that change?". I especially want to focus on cultural - even pop-cultural things like movies, music, art, theatre, dance, etc.

So after all that preface, I am wondering if anyone knows any good books about the history of any of those subjects, preferably 20th century?

# ¿ Jul 6, 2012 01:44

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

nerdpony posted:

I don't have any specific recommendations for books right now (I'll look over my books when I get home from work, but they're all packed up in preparation for a move, so not as easy as usual), but I would recommend making the class pretty primary source heavy. My younger sister (around the same age as your students) just finished up an integrated US History/American Lit class and the parts she talked about liking most were often reading primary sources. Newspaper articles, diaries, stuff that was popular at the time. I'm not sure how widely digitized/easily available this would be, but it would be awesome to read stuff aimed at teenagers from each period you're studying -- magazines for young people, excerpts from textbooks they used, et cetera.

A book that I'd recommend especially to teachers of American history in general is History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History. This may or may not end up being useful for your class, but it's a really interesting read.

Edit: A really cool project would be to have them talk to people of various ages about what being a young person was like when they were alive. Obviously the earliest you'll be able to get would be someone who was a teenager in the 1920s, but it could still be a really neat assignment for them.

Thank you - I like that project suggestion. I agree that primary sources should be the basis of history classes. My aunt recently gave me some Life magazines from the late 30s, just paging through the ads was fascinating.

To be more specific, I was asking for book recommendations for myself, not something my 11th graders would read.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2012 15:41

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:

I'm looking for some good books on Incan History, Last days of the Incans was a pretty sweet read and I'm hungry for more.

I'm maybe a third of the way through Guns, Germs and Steel and it is very interesting and very slow.

If you don't mind reading primary sources, try The Royal Commentaries of the Incas by El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega or An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru by Titu Cusi Yapunqui or Narrative of the Incas by Juan de Betanzos.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2012 03:30

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

So I've got a great list going for my 11th grade modern US history class. I am really strong at the moment in the Gilded Age and the 20s-40s.

Looking for more recommendations (again, for myself, not necessarily for my students); primary docs awesome; contemporary literature great as well; for the following areas:

1. Western expansion after the Civil War; end of the frontier; Indian wars, Populism, etc.
2. The '50s - back from the War, baby boom, consumerism
3. The '60s, '70s - especially protest movements and the Vietnam War
4. The '80s-2000s - this gets hard for me to teach as I lived it; but stuff about the role of computers in our lives, or the role of the internet; or stuff about movements in popular culture in the last 30 years or looking at singular decades; globalization and modern politics

Thanks in advance!

Nerdpony, I've been reading History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History. Pretty interesting, it seems like the kind of research I would have liked to do had I not gone into k-12 ed. After I started reading it, someone posted this interesting blog post on Facebook, http://postmasculine.com/america , which links in rather well, I think. I'm trying to work up some sort of lesson around the question "How do we think other countries define "American"?"

# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 16:33

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Chamberk posted:

TuppingLiberty, for the 60s/70s "Nixonland" (which has been mentioned several times in this thread, for good reason) has a good look at a lot of the protest movements and the government's response to them.

Thanks, someone recommended that one before but I forgot to add it to my list for some reason!

# ¿ Aug 11, 2012 06:30

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Jive One posted:

I'd try the first volume of William Durant's Story of Civilization, titled Our Oriental Heritage. Great overview of near-east bronze age civilizations as well as brief historical surveys of India, China and Japan.

wow, thanks! New reading goal...

# ¿ Oct 2, 2012 03:22

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Chamberk posted:

Can anyone suggest any history books that would be appropriate for a middle school reader? I'm working on a curriculum list for a summer reading program, and we're trying to get nonfiction for the younger levels, but it's proving difficult.

These are entirely US history answers as it's what I've taught the most at middle school level:

There is a version of Zinn's People's History of the US that is written specifically for young people. I think it would work for middle school as normal Zinn is sometimes used in high school classes. 50 American Heroes and 101 Changemakers are kind of set up in similar ways - 1 to 2 page biographies of people in US history plus some extension activities. Killing Lincoln has been popular amongst my 8th grade boys. Stupid American History is another popular one - set up kind of like Uncle John's Bathroom Readers.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 06:39

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I was reading Freedom from Fear for a history grant. It's another one of the huge books from the Oxford American History series; I only got through the first half of it (the Great Depression part) before taking a break from it. I'll go back at some point and read the WWII part but I got really bogged down in the "will they won't they" arguments about going to war in the 30's and 1940-41.

I liked the Depression part, to a point. Freedom from Fear is definitely a political history book with some elements peeking out here and there of social or cultural history. Someone on Goodreads recommended reading The Greatest Generation if one wanted more of a social history.

The author does a good job highlighting exactly what Hoover and Roosevelt actually did, though, given that the master narrative is generally "Hoover sucked and did nothing" and "Roosevelt is the God that got us out of the Great Depression."

Edit: Anyone have any thoughts on The Greatest Generation?

# ¿ Mar 3, 2013 16:57

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Thanks all - I'd rather not purchase a book to discover that myself, and that is def. not what I want.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 02:46

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Harry Haddock posted:

Also anything that goes into Native American history/civil rights from that period leading up to the present would be great.

A Different Mirror by Takaki has a broad overview of relations between the US Government and Native Americans past the 1880s. I'm currently reading the "for young adults" version to find good passages for my students and it's a nice quick read.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 18:35

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

This might be more religion than history, but anyone have recommendations for the history of Quakers/Society of Friends, either England or America?

Christoff posted:

I also love books about the other sides of history in general. Like "Lies my teacher told me." Things that we're led to believe or how things get watered down, the losers side, etc

Loewen's followup, Lies Across America, is pretty good - it tackles the inaccuracies in public markers, monuments, plaques, and so forth. Also I have heard his Sundown Towns is excellent.

You might also try Howard Zinn's People's History of the US for other sides of history.

Recommendation to all interested in US history: Joy Hakim's A History of Us look like textbooks, and they definitely could be used as textbooks, but read as a great narrative. I was recently given the 1945-Now book (#10), and it reads well for people of all ages. Also she's under contract to continue updating book 10 until she dies, so it even includes chapters on the Obama presidency so far and the 2008 economic crisis. I would definitely recommend reading the series if your local library has them. I decided to pick up all 10 used on Amazon, the whole thing cost me about $45.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2013 21:17

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Decius posted:

What's a good, readable book on the historical bible (OT/Jewish bible mainly)? About how and when the different parts were written and rewritten, how and why certain books developed the way they did, why things were left in or discarded, how it fits with the development of peoples and their god view in the general area.

This is sad, because I definitely read this book, or read it enough to use it in a history class in college, but I can't remember anything about it really, except that I think it fits what you want. Who Wrote the Bible?

# ¿ Apr 28, 2013 04:39

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I know some people might consider it "history lite" but man I am really enjoying Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates. I'm listening to the audiobook and I like the different voices for the different primary document authors, although John Oliver sounds strange.

I really, really like Vowell's way of blending humor and solid historical research and anecdotes about both her life and historical people.

I'm not from the East coast and I'm not religious so I didn't really think I'd like something about the Puritans but, no, it's fascinating!

# ¿ Sep 19, 2013 04:12

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Hand Row posted:

I just finished Bill Bryson's latest book 1927. Are there any similar authors or books you guys would recommend? If you have never read him, he writes light and narrative history with a comic/tragic bent. He tends to write about forgotten people and events. I never even knew about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927! The best parts of his books though tend to be about inventors who die penniless and without credit, but had huge contributions to the world.

Sarah Vowell maybe? I really enjoyed The Wordy Shipmates and Assassination Vacation. Partly Cloudly Patriot, however, is a series of This American Life style articles, which I'm enjoying less.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2013 02:57

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

The first half of Freedom from Fear deals with the Great Depression, and I really liked it. And when I say first half, this is an Oxford History of the US book so it goes into great depth.

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Fear-American-Depression-1929-1945/dp/0195144031

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 02:18

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I just finished Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell which is about Hawaiian history from the first missionaries to annexation. I would love to know more about Hawaiian history, and I'm not really particular about the time period, although Vowell mentions several times in her books something about a Hawaiian Renaissance in the 60s and 70s?

Anyway, Hawaiian history recommendations?

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 07:49

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Anyone who likes Civil War history, I finally got around to reading The State of Jones, which is about a county in Mississippi where deserters formed a military force, declared their loyalty to the US, and used guerrilla warfare on Confederate troops.

I really liked it. I like that it gave agency to the slaves rather than talking about them as victims. And the description of the siege of Vicksburg is so good. And the description of Reconstruction in Mississippi is so disheartening.

Overall, I'd say, check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/State-Jones-Sally-Jenkins-ebook/dp/B002DBIODE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394590667&sr=8-2&keywords=free+state+of+jones

# ¿ Mar 12, 2014 03:23

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I'm about 25% through Sundown Towns by James Loewen (of Lies My Teacher Told Me fame), and while it's interesting, I find myself spacing out (I'm listening to the audiobook) because it's very repetitive. But, an interesting look at residential segregation in America.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2014 16:36

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I really like "Escape from Camp 14" for insight into modern NK.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2014 14:17

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

I have recently become really interested in Japanese-American Internment in WWII. I have "Infamy" "Looking Like the Enemy" and "Farewell to Manzanar" on my to-read list, but does anyone have other recommendations?

# ¿ May 13, 2015 03:19

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:13

Tupping Liberty: Mar 17, 2008; Never cross an introvert.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a book about 20th/21st century LGBTQ history?

# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 02:55

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf