Summer is upon me, and that prompted a reading list discussion while sailing last night with friends. Here are a few books that I am planning to enjoy, and a few that will be used for research in the fall. The links will take you to Amazon.com.
Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia (Charles Townsend) – This dovetails with both the Great War literature and British India classes that I took this past year. Most of the British soldiers who fought in Mesopotamia were recruits from India.
Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy (Christopher Hayes) – He is speaking at the Chicago Public Library next week, and I want to be prepared.
Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (Maya Jasanoff) – Jasanoff won the George Washington Book Prize this year for this work about loyalists who fled the colonies.
Discourses (Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by Ninian Hill Thomson) – I’m hoping to do a historiographic analysis this fall of how Machiavelli has been viewed over the centuries.
The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) – A friend recommended this. It looks like an interesting treatment of a dystopian future.
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (Andrew Bacevich) – Bacevich is brilliant and speaks truth to power. We did it to ourselves, people.
The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab (Rajit K. Mazumder) – I read in Dr. Mazumder’s seminar on British colonialism in India this spring. His book deals with the social impact of military policy. This should be a good one.
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson) – Yep, I finally read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
More to come. Feel free to post some suggestions. And have a happy summer (or winter, depending upon your location.)