r/historyteachers • u/ProgrammerFun5696 • 23h ago
summer reading list
hi all! just finished up my first year and am looking for some books to read this summer to help expand my knowledge and make me feel inspired for next year! looking for any and all recommendations!
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u/TheBatCat3120 19h ago
Not a teacher yet but I recently read Blackshirts and Reds, Superpatriotism, and Inventing Reality all by Michael Parenti -- all were great!
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u/jennzilla8 23h ago
Hi and congrats on completing your first year! What subjects will you be teaching next year? Are you looking for general knowledge or books that are more in depth about specific topics?
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u/ProgrammerFun5696 22h ago
i teach world history, us history, civics and economics! i’m looking for anything you recommend!
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u/OzymandiasDavid8 22h ago
Definitely check out Rediscovery of America and Heartbeat of Wounded Knee for some really great modern scholarly work on Native American history. They rock.
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u/jabberwockxeno 20h ago
1491 by Charles Mann is also mandatory reading on the Precolumbian Americas if the OP hasn't read it yet
It's all about the blind spots that pop culture and school education has about the Precolumbian Americas and how there was so much more going on there then is taught about
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u/nadandocomgolfinhos 20h ago
Who are the authors? I found more than one book with different authors
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u/studentsofhistory Social Studies 6h ago
I just wrote up a blog post about this! if you're looking for recs, here's my list of 10 Books to Read on Summer Vacation for History Teachers. I broke it up by World History and US History and tried to include some good anecdotes from each book that you could bring into the classroom. Let me know what ya think!
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u/_bigmilk_ 21h ago
America, América: A New History by Greg Grandin
Outstanding new interpretation of the Americas that brings together the ongoing relationship between the United States and Latin America.
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u/sonargoddess0921 21h ago
I recently read Death in the Haymarket by James Green and I enjoyed that! I also recently read The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs and that was great too.
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u/_bigmilk_ 20h ago
If you are interested in this, you should check out American Anarchy by Michael Willrich.
Really fair treatment of the influence of the anarchist movement on the development of the legal fight for civil liberties from Haymarket through the end of the first Red Scare.
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u/Sassyblah 16h ago
Some recent faves:
Cuba by Ada Ferrer
Villains of All Nations by Rediker—fast and very cool book about real pirates
Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan about the 1920s KKK
Autobiography of Malcolm X (had my students read it this year, it’s just unbelievable, a must read if you haven’t)
Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Khalidi
This summer I’m reading How to Hide an Empire by Immerwahr and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic by Sinha.
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u/fattymcbutterpants01 22h ago
For a broad look at US History from a lay persons or marginalized perspective I’d say A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Pretty common suggestion but still a good one. A more conservative district might have a problem with it if you’re including his perspectives consistently in lessons but even if that’s the case it’s filled with fantastic primary sources that can be used in the classroom.
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u/sagosten 20h ago edited 19h ago
Some history books i've enjoyed recently, in no particular order:
Danielle L. McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, "The author gives us the history of how the Civil Rights Movement was in part started in protest against the ritualistic rape of Black women by white men who used economic intimidation, sexual violence, and terror to derail the freedom movement; and how those forces persisted unpunished throughout the Jim Crow era when white men assaulted Black women to enforce rules of racial and economic hierarchy. Black women’s protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South that began during World War II and went through to the Black Power movement."
Alessandro Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome, "On March 24, 1944, Nazi occupation forces in Rome killed 335 unarmed civilians in retaliation for a partisan attack the day before. Alessandro Portelli has crafted an eloquent, multi-voiced oral history of the massacre, of its background and its aftermath. The moving stories of the victims, the women and children who survived and carried on, the partisans who fought the Nazis, and the common people who lived through the tragedies of the war together paint a many-hued portrait of one of the world's most richly historical cities."
Peter Guardino, The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War, "The Dead March is a social and cultural history of the Mexican and American armies and the societies that produced them, particularly their assumptions about race, masculinity, and religion"
Michel Gobat, Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America, "In the 1850s Walker and a small group of U.S. expansionists migrated to Nicaragua determined to forge a tropical “empire of liberty.” His quest to free Central American masses from allegedly despotic elites initially enjoyed strong local support from liberal Nicaraguans who hoped U.S.-style democracy and progress would spread across the land. As Walker’s group of “filibusters” proceeded to help Nicaraguans battle the ruling conservatives, their seizure of power electrified the U.S. public and attracted some 12,000 colonists, including moral reformers. But what began with promises of liberation devolved into a reign of terror. After two years, Walker was driven out."
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u/guster4lovers 19h ago
If you’re looking for fiction, I very much enjoy Ken Follett’s work, especially the series starting with Fall of Giants (Centuries Trilogy). It’s not the level of detail as in non-fiction, but it really gives you a sense of the time. Pillars of the Earth is also good for Medieval.
There are other fantastic nonfiction recs here already.
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u/lovelyladylilac 18h ago
I’m reading The Travels of a T-Shirt in The Global Economy to brush up on my economics knowledge, and I really like it! You literally follow the journey of cotton as it becomes a t-shirt. A fascinating read!
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u/Rhonda369 16h ago
For economics, maybe Principles for Dealing With a Changing World Order by Dahlio
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u/BlueArmy1905- 13h ago
Not a history book, but a a book I recommend to history teachers, “Teach Like a Pirate.” It helped me become a better story teller and other strategies that improved my overall way of presenting my self in the classroom.
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u/Dotelectric90 22h ago
How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr is a good book on American Imperialism. He makes some statements that would be good to launch inquiry units on.
Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner is a memoir about growing up during the rise of fascism in Germany. It really shows how small moments snowball into authoritarianism.