20th Century Syllabus
October 25, 2013 11:16 AM Subscribe
You're teaching a massive survey course on the history of the 20th Century. What books are on the syllabus, in what order?
Let's say you're limited to seven primary texts, with as many supplemental texts as you'd like. And if you're wondering whether to favor comprehensiveness vs. readability, for my purposes, I'd go with readable. (I'm not actually creating a syllabus for a 20th Century history course. But I'm looking for a solid corpus of Postwar-ish, Soul of a New Machine-ish books on the 20th Century for my own edification. Thanks much)
Let's say you're limited to seven primary texts, with as many supplemental texts as you'd like. And if you're wondering whether to favor comprehensiveness vs. readability, for my purposes, I'd go with readable. (I'm not actually creating a syllabus for a 20th Century history course. But I'm looking for a solid corpus of Postwar-ish, Soul of a New Machine-ish books on the 20th Century for my own edification. Thanks much)
[edit- i missed the part where you said this wasn't for a course; you'll see that in my answer...]
Oh man. This is like my current recreational reading.
One area that's really really interesting, and often overlooked, is the formation of the Middle East after World War I. There are lots of interesting ways to go into that. A biography of Atatürk (I haven't ready any, there are a couple on my to-read wishlist) could be a good one.
There's a new Lawrence biography: "Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East" by Scott Anderson that's in my too-read stack on the table in front of me.
It's hard to find, but there is an *excellent* biography of the late King Hussein of Jordan: "Hussein" by Peter Snow. It goes into a lot of detail about political pan-arabism and Middle Eastern politics in the first 2/3 of the century.
Also in my to-read stack is book recently reviewed by the Economist: "Year Zero: A History of 1945" by Ian Buruma.
Also in the stack is book recommended by a political science friend "The Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt. It covers the rise of 19th-Century anti-semitism and works through WWI, Nazi Germany, and Stalinism.
For lighter material, which may make excellent supplements, there's a wonderful series of WWI graphic novels (comics) called Charley's War. Obviously it's fictional, but it could be a fun way to look at some of the major campaigns of that war.
The standard Lawrence stuff - Seven Pillars and the Jeremy Wilson biography might be too in-depth, but might make good supplament if the period is interesting.
There's also a book, recently reviewed by the Economist, "Hans and Rudolf" that I just finished. It traces the biographies of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his eventual captor. It's fast paced and quick reading, and endlessly fascinating. It gives a lot of context and depth the to the rise of Nazism and anti-semitism, and the bureaucratic mechanics of the Holocaust, and could provide a novel entree to that period.
My own to-read stack also includes a biography of Theodore Herzl, though I suspect political zionism isn't useful in depth to your survey course.
If you want to spend time with Stalinsim and the Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novels are excellent. Ivan Dennisovich is a short, quick read, and the Gulag Archipelago is a little more in depth, but longer.
This list is obviously deficient for most of the latter half of the century. My personal interest is the middle east and political Islam.
One very nonconventional work that could make excellent supplementary material is Akira Kurosawa's autobiography. He covers a lot about pre-war Japan - school structure, the experience of the 1923(?) Kanto earthquake, things like that. Then he talks a lot about the experience of being Japanese during the War and the occupation, and ends ~1960 or so. It's a very focused, personal account of that period in Japan.
The 20th century is also great for art and photography, especially. The Bauhaus photographers like Lazlo Maholy-Nagi have work that is visually ground breaking, and also captures that between-the-wars period in Germany very well. The press photographers of the second world war, who were all fine arts photographers in their own right, eg Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, etc all made amazing work, not just during the war, but before and after.
John Steinbeck's A Russian Journal is also fascinating as a document of America's radical left in the 1950s and its perception of Stalin's Russia is an excellent read.
I'll add more if I think of any. I feel like I'll be wracking my brain on this for a week.
posted by colin_l at 12:04 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
Oh man. This is like my current recreational reading.
One area that's really really interesting, and often overlooked, is the formation of the Middle East after World War I. There are lots of interesting ways to go into that. A biography of Atatürk (I haven't ready any, there are a couple on my to-read wishlist) could be a good one.
There's a new Lawrence biography: "Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East" by Scott Anderson that's in my too-read stack on the table in front of me.
It's hard to find, but there is an *excellent* biography of the late King Hussein of Jordan: "Hussein" by Peter Snow. It goes into a lot of detail about political pan-arabism and Middle Eastern politics in the first 2/3 of the century.
Also in my to-read stack is book recently reviewed by the Economist: "Year Zero: A History of 1945" by Ian Buruma.
Also in the stack is book recommended by a political science friend "The Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt. It covers the rise of 19th-Century anti-semitism and works through WWI, Nazi Germany, and Stalinism.
For lighter material, which may make excellent supplements, there's a wonderful series of WWI graphic novels (comics) called Charley's War. Obviously it's fictional, but it could be a fun way to look at some of the major campaigns of that war.
The standard Lawrence stuff - Seven Pillars and the Jeremy Wilson biography might be too in-depth, but might make good supplament if the period is interesting.
There's also a book, recently reviewed by the Economist, "Hans and Rudolf" that I just finished. It traces the biographies of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his eventual captor. It's fast paced and quick reading, and endlessly fascinating. It gives a lot of context and depth the to the rise of Nazism and anti-semitism, and the bureaucratic mechanics of the Holocaust, and could provide a novel entree to that period.
My own to-read stack also includes a biography of Theodore Herzl, though I suspect political zionism isn't useful in depth to your survey course.
If you want to spend time with Stalinsim and the Gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novels are excellent. Ivan Dennisovich is a short, quick read, and the Gulag Archipelago is a little more in depth, but longer.
This list is obviously deficient for most of the latter half of the century. My personal interest is the middle east and political Islam.
One very nonconventional work that could make excellent supplementary material is Akira Kurosawa's autobiography. He covers a lot about pre-war Japan - school structure, the experience of the 1923(?) Kanto earthquake, things like that. Then he talks a lot about the experience of being Japanese during the War and the occupation, and ends ~1960 or so. It's a very focused, personal account of that period in Japan.
The 20th century is also great for art and photography, especially. The Bauhaus photographers like Lazlo Maholy-Nagi have work that is visually ground breaking, and also captures that between-the-wars period in Germany very well. The press photographers of the second world war, who were all fine arts photographers in their own right, eg Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, etc all made amazing work, not just during the war, but before and after.
John Steinbeck's A Russian Journal is also fascinating as a document of America's radical left in the 1950s and its perception of Stalin's Russia is an excellent read.
I'll add more if I think of any. I feel like I'll be wracking my brain on this for a week.
posted by colin_l at 12:04 PM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]
And now since I correctly understand this is for personal interest, and not a course, I can recommend novels like Louis de Bernières' "Birds without Wings."
It's a novel about a small town in southern Turkey from 1900 onward, and weaves in an accurate biography of Atatürk as a sub plot.
posted by colin_l at 12:09 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
It's a novel about a small town in southern Turkey from 1900 onward, and weaves in an accurate biography of Atatürk as a sub plot.
posted by colin_l at 12:09 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
A biography of Atatürk (I haven't ready any, there are a couple on my to-read wishlist) could be a good one.
Andrew Mango's is a good English-language biography of Atatürk, but it does assume that the reader has some knowledge of WWI and Ottoman involvement therein.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:15 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Andrew Mango's is a good English-language biography of Atatürk, but it does assume that the reader has some knowledge of WWI and Ottoman involvement therein.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:15 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
1984
Catch 22
Gravity's Rainbow
The Golden Notebook
These are all novels that provide important social commentary on the state of human society in the 20th century and (with the exception of 1984) interesting historical context and commentary.
posted by alms at 12:18 PM on October 25, 2013
Catch 22
Gravity's Rainbow
The Golden Notebook
These are all novels that provide important social commentary on the state of human society in the 20th century and (with the exception of 1984) interesting historical context and commentary.
posted by alms at 12:18 PM on October 25, 2013
I recommend the first seven items on National Review's 100 best non-fiction books of the century, Churchill, Solzhenitsyn, Orwell (twice), Hayek, Popper, and C.S.Lewis.
posted by Bruce H. at 12:26 PM on October 25, 2013
posted by Bruce H. at 12:26 PM on October 25, 2013
Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
posted by jgirl at 2:22 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jgirl at 2:22 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sword and Blossom is another really interesting personalized window into the Century. It's the (nonfiction) account of an affair between a British officer stationed in Japan around the time of the Russo-Japanese war, and there's a lot about that war, Japan's alliance with Britain during the first world war, and Japanese and British culture of the period. It's intriguing.
And it reminds me of another book I read about the same time I read that, The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War.
It's an account of Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of War future-president Taft's secret dealings with the Japanese to carve up Asia. It's fascinating.
posted by colin_l at 3:18 PM on October 25, 2013
And it reminds me of another book I read about the same time I read that, The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War.
It's an account of Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of War future-president Taft's secret dealings with the Japanese to carve up Asia. It's fascinating.
posted by colin_l at 3:18 PM on October 25, 2013
Emma Goldman's two volume autobiography is also an excellent read.
It covers the nascent labor and anarchist movements in the US at the start of the Century, and gives a unique anarchist perspective on the Russian revolution
posted by colin_l at 3:34 PM on October 25, 2013
It covers the nascent labor and anarchist movements in the US at the start of the Century, and gives a unique anarchist perspective on the Russian revolution
posted by colin_l at 3:34 PM on October 25, 2013
Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
posted by jason's_planet at 6:09 PM on October 25, 2013
posted by jason's_planet at 6:09 PM on October 25, 2013
The German Myth of the East: 1800 to the Present will give some much-needed context to the history of World War Two. I would assign some supplemental readings on Generalplan Ost and I would also include The American West and the Nazi East in that list of supplemental readings.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:20 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jason's_planet at 6:20 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991
posted by robcorr at 6:26 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by robcorr at 6:26 PM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:41 PM on October 25, 2013
posted by ocherdraco at 6:41 PM on October 25, 2013
Embers of war: The fall of an empire and the making of America's Vietnam, by Frederik Logevall
How Asia works by Joe Studwell
posted by deadweightloss at 9:27 PM on October 25, 2013
How Asia works by Joe Studwell
posted by deadweightloss at 9:27 PM on October 25, 2013
I agree that having something in there on Atatürk is a really good idea. He encapsulates and reflects so much of what was going on in a richly ambiguous way from a de-centered locale. Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography by M. Sükrü Hanioglu isn't a masterpiece, but it's well written and cuts to the chase.
posted by bertran at 2:22 AM on October 26, 2013
posted by bertran at 2:22 AM on October 26, 2013
Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
posted by dhens at 12:03 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
posted by dhens at 12:03 PM on October 26, 2013 [1 favorite]
Just FYI, Human Smoke, cited earlier, seems a bit problematic (to say the least).
posted by dhens at 2:17 AM on October 27, 2013
posted by dhens at 2:17 AM on October 27, 2013
Here me out: The Cartoon History of the Universe (or the United States). Make sure to read the comments -- it's proved far more instrumental to people's understanding of history than you'd expect.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:45 PM on November 6, 2013
posted by Rhaomi at 10:45 PM on November 6, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:22 AM on October 25, 2013 [2 favorites]