Book Recommendations Needed for U.S. History Course (1917-1945)

by Liberty and Power

I will be teaching an upper division undergraduate history course. Does anyone have book suggestions (including novels)?

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Tim Sydney - 7/8/2008

My recommendations, Ronald Radosh's 'Prophets on The Right' and Wayne Cole's book on Senator Nye

David T. Beito - 7/1/2008

Hmm....better not.

David T. Beito - 7/1/2008

Some great suggestions. BTW, a novel that I used to good effect in my black history course was Schuyler's wonderful Black No More. Since I intend to teach it again, however, I don't intend to double dip.

Jeff Riggenbach - 7/1/2008

The novels that best capture the various aspects of America in the '20s are the novels of Carl Van Vechten, especially "Peter Whiffle" (1922), "Nigger Heaven" (1926), and "Parties" (1930).

For the '30s, two that are especially noteworthy are "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" by Horace McCoy and "Mildred Pierce" by James M. Cain.

JR

Aeon J. Skoble - 7/1/2008

David Beito, _From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State_.

SRSLY

David T. Beito - 7/1/2008

Thanks. Kennedy would be good. I am already assigning Fleming's The New Dealer's War. It is quite long and I probably won't assign anything else (except for short selections) for WWII. If I do, it won't be about the homefront.

The big gap right now is the 1920s and 1930s. I may be able to handle this through a lot of articles and selections but it would great to have at least one book, perhaps a novel. Higgs suggested Big Money (I've never read it) or Johnny Got His Run (never read that either) but also thought of It Can't Happen Here. Better decide soon.

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel - 6/30/2008

David M. Kennedy, OVER HERE: THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND AMERICAN SOCIETY (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980) remains in my opinion the best account of the U.S. home front during WWI. There are four excellent, highly readable accounts of the WWII home front, each with slightly different emphases: Richard R. Lingeman, DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON? THE AMERICAN HOME FRONT, 1941-1945 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970); Richard Polenberg, WAR AND SOCIETY: THE UNITED STATES, 1941-1945 (New York: J. P. Lippincott, 1972); Geoffrey Perrett, DAYS OF SADNESS, YEARS OF TRIUMPH: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, 1939-1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973); and John Morton Blum, V WAS FOR VICTORY: POLITICS AND AMERICAN CULTURE DURING WORLD WAR II (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976).