After discussing with a friend what works one would include in a course on American history using fiction literature, I decided to make a list of significant literary works by American authors. This list only contains fiction literature, such as novels, short stories, poems, or plays. It does not contain non-fiction works, such as letters, diaries, essays, memoirs, or literary criticism. Some works from the New Journalism era that are technically factual but read like novels are included, however. The list also does not contain (with a few exceptions) children’s books or graphic novels. Books are listed chronologically so that it is easy to determine which works would fit into a history course that treats literature as cultural texts.
Read moreSocialist Fiction Literature
Here is a list of socialist fiction literature that includes works that were written by socialists or communists, or that have strong socialist themes. This list only includes novels, not poems or plays. Let me know what books are missing, and I will add them to the list.
Read moreNietzsche, Marx, and the Modern Left
In How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle, Jonas Čeika rescues Nietzsche and Marx from their undeserved fates as caricatures and examines how their ideas are more compatible than have often been depicted. Čeika's new book unearths dormant values in each figure’s thought that are useful to a modern emancipatory politics.
Read moreTwentieth-Century U.S. Cultural, Intellectual, Social, and Political Reading List
This list includes the books I am reading for comprehensive exams for my Ph.D. in twentieth-century U.S. history. My three fields are cultural and intellectual history, social and political history, and film history. Since these fields overlap with each other, I have organized the list into rough thematic and chronological categories. Essentially, this list should broadly cover the ideas, music, art, politics, and social movements within the U.S. during the twentieth century.
Read moreFor the Love of Books or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Melvil Dewey
Everyone should be surrounded by books, although, for some of us, our love of books may border on obsession. Regardless, here is an overview of my personal library classification system.
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