Making History Podcast » booklist

Episode 3, Part 2: Jeff Wasserstrom

Jana Remy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:08:15 +0000

This MHP episode offers an informal interview with China historian Jeff Wasserstrom, where he discusses a variety of topics about writing history. He gives advice on publishing book reviews, overcoming writer’s block, and names some of his favorite history books. Jeff also speaks about the Writing History seminar he led at UC Irvine this past Fall.

Links to some of Jeff’s favorite reads:

Jonathan Spence, The Question of Hu
Amitav Ghosh, In An Antique Land
Mike Davis, City of Quartz
Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
The travel writing of Pico Iyer
Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace

Wasserstrom’s latest book, China’s Brave New World, was featured on a list of Pankaj Mishra’s favorite books of 2007. Mishra writes, “In this book Jeffrey Wasserstrom shows why he is one of the most sensible writers on a subject that most Western writers spoil with either paranoia or excessive awe.” Jeff is also a member of The China Beat blog team.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode of MHP with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, AHA president-elect and author of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.

Salon's best history books

Jana Remy — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:53:50 +0000

From HNN:

6 of Salon’s best books of the year involve history. Three novels make the list, two biographies, and one history book.

NOVELS
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
The Father of All Things by Tom Bissell

BIOGRAPHY
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell

HISTORY
Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA by Tim Weiner

Episode 2, Part 2: Martha Hodes

Jana Remy — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:43:39 +0000

This episode offers a candid discussion with Martha Hodes about the background for her latest book, her daily writing practices, her teaching of experimental history in the classroom, and some advice to graduate students about ‘finding the story’ in their dissertation topics.

Martha mentions some books that she recommends as inspiration for writing:

Erskine Clark, Dwelling Place
Clare Messud, The Emperor’s Children
Stephen Carter, New England White
Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

Some questions for discussion:

Martha says that she finds much of her writing inspiration from fiction. Do you find inspiration from fiction? If so, what books would you recommend to other writers?

When conducting your own research, do you find yourself looking for good stories to tell?

She notes that in The Sea Captain’s Wife she leaves out the sentence that says “I argue that…” because she feels that the argument is evident from the historical narrative. Do you, in your own writing, find the need to explicitly spell out your argument for your readers or do you find that you can write in a manner that makes the argument obvious?

In this episode Martha discusses her undergraduate class in “Experimental History.” This previous post links to her Perspectives article on this topic and offers links to the books and articles that she uses in the classroom.