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History M.A. Reading Lists

Below find the following reading lists:

  • United States History
  • European History, Ancient and Medieval
  • European History, Early Modern
  • European History, Modern

see history, M.A. Examination Questions

1. Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity

2. Gary Nash, Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America

3. Jack P. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture

4. Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492

5. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard

6. James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

7. Allan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade

8. Edmund Morgan, American Freedom, American Slavery

9. Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America

10. Michael Kammen, A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture

11. Rhys Isaac, Transformation of Virginia

12. Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class

13. Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

14. Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States

15. Thomas Dublin, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1850

16. Charles Sellers, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846

17. Ira Berlin, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South

18. Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made

19. Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion: The ‘Invisible Institution’ in the Antebellum South

20. Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War

21. Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860

22. Barbara Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century

23. Jacqueline Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family From Slavery to the Present

24. James McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution

25. James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

26. Dan Carter, When the War Was Over: The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South, 1865-1867

27. Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877

28. Edward Ayers, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction

29. Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920

30. Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920

31. David Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925

32. Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919

33. Robert Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920

34. C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow

35. Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War

36. Emily Yellin, Our Mother’s War: American Women at Home and at the Front During WWII

37. Lewis Ehrenberg and Susan Hirsch, eds., The War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness During WWII.

38. Gary Gerstle, American Crucible: Race and Nation in the 20th Century

39. Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeomen Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 

40. Anthony Badger, The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940

41. Jacqueline Hall, et al, Like A Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World

42. Sean Wilentz, The Age of Reagan

43. Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening

44. Thomas Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North

45. Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of America

46. Alice Echols, Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975

47. Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

48. George C. Herring, America’s Longest War

49. Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right

50. Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History

The following books represent a mixture of classic texts and current literature. Students with weakenesses in any area of the premodern world should also consult a good current textbook or see Dr. Szabo for more specific textbooks on particular chronological periods.

In addition to these seminal works of European premodern history, students in Ancient and Medieval fields are expected to have read widely within the primary canon. Students should familiarize themselves with the major works in translation (through course readers, full texts, or other scholarly editions) of classical and medieval authors, including, but not limited to the following essential authors and texts. Please note, these are suggested authors with whom the student should be familiar, not a separate reading list.  A good sourcebook, such as Patrick Geary’s two volume medieval sourcebook (Toronto) will provide sufficient familiarity.

Ancient Greece and Rome:  Aristophanes, Aristotle, Caesar, Cicero, Herodotus, Hesiod, Homer, Livy, Ovid, Plato, Plutarch, Tacitus, Thucydides, Virgil.

Late Antiquity / Early Middle Ages: New Testament, Paul, Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius, Ammianus 
Marcellinus, Gregory of Tours, Jordanes, Bede,  Beowulf, various Germanic lit (as relevant to field).

Medieval:  Abelard and Heloise (letters and Historia Calamitum), St. T. Aquinas, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Dante, Langland, Song of Roland, Chretien de Troyes, various major legal canons (both secular and sacred). 
 

Listed according to chronoogy (Classical Greece to Late Middle Ages):

1. M. Herman Hansen, Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State, 2006.

2. J. Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: rhetoric, ideology, and the power of the people, 1989.

3. V.D. Hanson, The Western Way of War: infantry battle in classical Greece, 2000.

4. M. Skinner, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture, 2005. 

5. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Trans. Walter Blanco. Norton Critical Edition,1998.


6. H. Flower, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, 2004. 

7. G. Woolf, Becoming Roman, 2000. 

8. K. Galinsky, Augustan Culture, 1998.

9. P. Zanker, Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988.

10. E. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third, 1976.


11. B. Ward Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. 2006.

12. P. Heather,  The Fall fo the Roman Empire, 2007. 

13. W. Goffart, Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire, 2009.

14. P. Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, 1982.

15. H. R. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops, 2002. 

16. C. Rapp, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of 
Transition
, 2005.

17. M. McCormick. Origins of the European Economy, 2002.


18. R. Barlett, R. The Making of Europe, 1994. 

19. R. McKitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity, 2008.

20. J. Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from 
the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth century
, 2005. 

21. C. W. Bynum, Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women
1988. 

22. L. K. Little and B. H. Rosenwein, eds. Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings, 1998.

23. R. I. Moore, Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-
1250
,  2007.

24. M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, 2004. 

25. T. Bisson, Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship and the Origins of European Government
2010. 

26. J. Riley-Smith, The Crusades, 2005.  

27. T. Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades, 2005.

28. S. Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted, 1996.

29. W.C. Jordan, The Great Famine, 1997.

30. M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066-1307, 1993. 

31. B. Hanawalt, The Ties that Bound:  Peasant Families in Medieval England, 1986.

32. B. Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State: 1050-1300, 1988.

33. D.  Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, 1997. 

1. Astin, Trevor. Crisis in Europe: 1560-1660 (1965)

2. Beik, William. Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France: State Power and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc (1985)

3. Bossy, John. Christianity and the West, 1400-1700 (1985)

4. Brewer, John. The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688-1783 (1990)

5. Briggs, Robin. Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft (1996)

6. Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1994).

7. Chartier, Roger. Cultural Origins of the French Revolution (1991)

8. Crosly, Alfred. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (1972)

9. Darnton, Robert. Great Cat Massacre (1985).

10. Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre (1984).

11. Dear, Peter. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (2001)

12. Duffy, Eamon. Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580. 2d. ed. (2005)

13. Eisenstrein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe [abridged] (1993)

14. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977/1995)

15. Ginzburg, Carlos. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1980/1992)

16. Goldgar, Anne. Impolite Learning: Conduct and Communityin the Republic of Letters, 1680-1750 (1995)

17. Grafton, Anthony. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450-1800 (1994)

18. Greenblatt, Stephen. Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (1991)

19. Hunt, Lynn. The Family Romance of the French Revolution (1993)

20. Jardine, Lisa. Wordly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance (1996)

21. Johns, Adrian. The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (2000).

22. Jones, E. L. The European Miracle: Environments, Economics and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia (1981)

23. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed (1996)

24. Laqueur, Thomas. Making Sex: The Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (1992).

25. Nauert, Charles. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (1995).

26. Outram, Dorinda. The Enlightenment.(2nd ed., 2005)

27. Steven Ozment, Flesh and Spirit; Private Life in Early Modern Germany.

28. Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500-1800. 2d ed. (1996)

29. Parker, Geoffrey and Smith, Leslie. The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century (1997)

30. Pincus, Steven. 1688: The First Modern Revolution (2009).

31. R. Po-Chia Hsia [surname is Hsia]. Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750 (1989)

32. Porter, Roy. The Enlightenment (2001)

33. Raeff, Mark. The Well-Ordered Police State Social and Institutional Change through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600-1800(1983)

34. Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1997)

35. Scribner, R.W. For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Revolution (1997)

36. Shapin, Steven, and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (1989).

37. de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution (1955)

38. Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (1998).

39. Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (1997).

40. Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (1976)

41. Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)

42. Wiesner, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (1993)

Note: European History has been divided into three eras: Ancient/Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern. Students in the "EurHi" track are responsible for mastering the book lists from two of these periods. Please see Dr. Dorondo for general works on Modern Europe.

1. Martyn Lyons, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution (1994)

2. E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1964) 

3. Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848 (1994)

4. Eric Hobsbawn, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848 (1996)

5. T. S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830 (1997)

6. Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (1987)

7. John Breuilly, The Formation of the First German Nation-State, 1800-1871 (1996)

8. Harry Hearder, Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento (1982)

9. Sudhir Hazareesingh, From Subject to Citizen: The Second Empire and the Emergence of Modern French Democracy (1998)

10. Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (1981)

11. H. L. Wesseling, Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914 (1996)

12. Ernst Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (1983)

13. Leslie Page Moch, Moving European: Migration in Western Europe Since 1650 (1993)

14. Gertrude Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (1992)

15. Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions (1979)

16. Roberta Manning, The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia (1982) 

17. Bernadotte E. Schmidt and Harold C. Vederler, The World in the Crucible, 1914-1918 (1984)

18. Charles Maier, Recasting Bourgeois Europe: Stabilization in France, Germany, and Italy in the Decade After WWI (1975) 

19. Paul Russell, Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War (1989)

20. Muriel E. Chamberlain, Decolonization: The Fall of European Empires (1985) 

21. Padraic Kenney, Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950 (1997)

22. A. W. DePorte, Europe Between the Superpowers (1979)

23. Arthur Marwick, The Sixties: Cultural Revolutions in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States (1998)

24. Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (1993)

25. George Weigel, The Final Revolution: The Breaking of Communist Europe (1991)

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