An idea for an open reading list.

[Adsos Letter]

I wonder if an open reading list on issues regarding the United States and its founding principles and ideologies might be beneficial to our community. The scope could certainly be broadly based.

Here are a few (of the many) that have proven very educational to me:

Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (A mainstay of undergrad History reading, and still powerful)
http://www.amazon.com/Ideological-Origins-American-Revo...

Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
http://www.amazon.com/Unruly-Americans-Origins-Constitution-Holton/dp/0809016435/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274377131&sr=1-3

Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic: 1776-1787
http://www.amazon.com/1776-1787-Published-Omohundro-Ins...

Gary Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America
http://www.amazon.com/American-Revolution-Democracy-Struggle-America/dp/014303720X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274376992&sr=1-1

Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America
http://www.amazon.com/Women-Republic-Intellect-Revolutionary-Institute/dp/0807846325/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274377987&sr=1-1

Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America
http://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Republic-Political-Econom...

Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash; Women and Politics in the Early Republic
http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Backlash-Politics-American-Republic/dp/0812220730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274378169&sr=1-1

David Gellman, Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827
http://www.amazon.com/Emancipating-New-York-1777-1827-Antislavery/dp/080713368X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274377789&sr=1-3


One of the best works I have found on the founders and religion remains Frank Lambert's The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America
http://www.amazon.com/Founding-Fathers-Place-Religion-A...


PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD TO (or challenge) THE WORKS ON THE LIST; WE CAN ALL USE A FURTHERING OF OUR UNDERSTANDING.

[Adsos Letter]

1. kick

[Adsos Letter]

2. final kick

[PufPuf23]

3. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45

by Milton Mayer.

Just finished re-reading this book last evening and almost every chapter had quotes I considered posting at DU. I first read the book in a high school history class in 1966. Here are some reviews at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274410428&sr=1-1

[Adsos Letter]

4. Thanks PufPuf23! I just ordered it...

along with Upton Sinclair's It Can't Happen Here; and Butler's War is a Racket (and The Religion of the Lost Cause) which I have been wanting to read for some time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Don't forget some of the primary sources

On Government

by Locke

Of course Notes on Virginia by one Thomas Jefferson

The letters between him and Adams

And of course the Federalist and the Anti Federalists

I could add a few books on labor as well, like Foners, History of American Labor...

And how could I pass both Hume and Smith...

[Adsos Letter]

8. Thanks!

I have all of those, including Volume 1 of his history of the labor movement; I also have his history of Reconstruction, and his study on post-Civil War Republican ideology to read for my final comp. Should get to them in the next couple of weeks. Just now writing something up on Daniel Walker Howe's study of Whig political culture. :D

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Ah any similarities to Tea Party culture

are purely coincidental.

You will soon understand why the TEA party reminds me of the whigs.

[jotsy]

6. Kicking to avoid seeing a DUer stand alone.

I fear too many want to bitch and not enough want to arm themselves with info that might shed light or move us forward. I might suggest you consider Demeter's approach to Weekend Economist, or how a recurring thread by Octafish about the BFEE is framed. Review, highlight and summarize what you feel are the most pivotal elements of what you learned and try posting a series of essays to see if helps you get a little better length on a given thread.

Folks with an intricate take on history prior to this depleting debacle are going to be necessary to remind us how we looked at things before textbooks were scrubbed the way they are about to be.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Been doing that as I go down the rabit hole

on the history of labor... oy the notebook is growing.

It is actually reminding me off... my thesis project.

[Adsos Letter]

9. Well, thankyou jotsy! I think you nailed it, structurally...

perhaps (after I take my final comp exam next month) I will start a journal on DU and incorporate your ideas. :hi:

[one_voice]

11. Damn, guess I won't be reading...

my trashy books by the pool. :-)

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Oh com'on the Wealth of Nations

is all the rage... and if you have something like a Sony Reader or Nook, or what have you, you can even get the Google books version (free)

I actually paid for it, better layout and for a buck, not bad

[Adsos Letter]

14. Now, now...

trashy books have their place in a healthy society. :D

[Dr.Phool]

12. A Peoples History of The United States, 1492-Present, by Howard Zinn.

One of the most important history books ever written.

[Adsos Letter]

15. I read that as an undergrad; great book!

A needed corrective to the type of historiography which Texas is trying to resurrect.

[Odin2005]

16. "The Defining Moment" by Johnathan Alter, a great book on FDR's first 100 Days.

[Adsos Letter]

18. Thanks; sounds interesting! It goes on my list.

[flamingdem]

17. How about a graphic novel? ;} nt

[Adsos Letter]

20. The pleasures of reading arive in many forms

:D

[Bonobo]

19. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman nt

[Adsos Letter]

21. That sounds both interesting and relevant; according to the description at Amazon...

"Early chapters trace America's one-time love affair with the printed word, from colonial pamphlets to the publication of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. There's a biting analysis of TV commercials as a form of "instant therapy" based on the assumption that human problems are easily solvable."

This is an issue addressed repeatedly in the bloc of republican/antebellum reading I've been doing.
Bailyn directly addresses the role of Colonial American and radical English pamphlets on political discussion in both England and the American colonies as a major part of his thesis. Many of the rest note the role of print media in forming opinions.

The print media in the colonial/antebellum period often wasn't any less partisan than the popular electronic media today (or any less viscious in its content, depending upon the source). But much of the pamphlet literature, etc., did intelligently and seriously discuss profound issues underlying government, etc., rather than seeking simply to deaden the brain.