In one of the classes I teach we had a discussion about whether scientists and engineers ought to read science fiction (spurred by a student presenting on this article from The Atlantic). Out of a class of 25 students (almost all engineers of one stripe or another) only 6 or so described themselves as avid readers of science fiction. I wasn't too surprised by this, but only because previous discussions with students had made me realize that they (sadly) didn't do a lot of recreational reading in general.

Anyway, it got me thinking a little bit about what kinds of fictional reading we might prescribe to historians. I do a lot of reading of fiction, because it is fun and interesting and does often get me thinking about non-fiction topics (and also because I usually need to read for an hour before I fall asleep and non-fiction tends to keep me up for whatever reason). I have been kind of depressed that many people in my graduate cohort often said they never read fiction because "they didn't have time" (but somehow they watched plenty of crap television).

Anyway, as a historian of science I consider reading science fiction sort of mandatory, because understanding scientific imaginations is pretty core to the enterprise, and it does end up giving me ideas about directions that science and technology might end up going (and plenty of fodder for "what if" discussions with engineers regarding future potential applications of nanotechnology, synthetic biology, etc.).

But if I were to prescribe a genre for my more general historical inclinations I think I would tend towards neo-noir (of the James Ellroy variety), which is all about subtle power relationships and the seamy underside of life that doesn't always end up in the documentation.

I have found some forms of historical fiction useful (and Ellroy's later books, i.e. American Tabloid onward, can be called this too, perhaps), as really good fiction can create very convincing people out of historical characters whose heads can be hard to get inside of (I am a big fan of Wolf Hall for this reason, though I know the historians have much to criticize about it).

I read absolutely zero "alternate history" because the idea of it mostly bores me, even if I do think that counter-factual speculation is a useful historical exercise (because it forces us to try and identify relevant historical contingencies and variables). (The fact that I do consult for a television show that is historical fiction/alternate history is not evidence of hypocrisy — I think I do it the right way, of course!)

Are there are other fictional genres, books, or whatever that aid in the thinking about history? I know we usually complain about fiction getting things wrong, but where are the instances where fiction has led you (or others) right?

Book Request: Looking for reading on the settlement of Alaska and/or the Canadian far west. Subjects could include exploration, gold rush, economic development, interactions with indigenous populations, etc. All suggestions, general or specific, appreciated!

Does anyone have any suggested reading on diplomacy and military planning in the era between World War I and World War II? I was just reading through the Wikipedia articles on the US color-coded war plans and the Rainbow plans and found all the hypothetical plans to be really interesting. I guess I'm interested in how these plans (whether in the US or elsewhere) were affected by diplomacy and shifting alliances following World War I. I checked the booklist but the only books about the pre-war era seem to focus almost exclusively on Germany.

I just finished reorganizing some data for a chapter (women buried with weapons in early Anglo-Saxon England), and I ran a Fisher's test to see if the trends I was seeing (a massive upswing in the proportion of women buried with weapons in the mid 7th century) were statistically significant.

p = .07

Dammit.

Do I go back and gather more data, or play the historian card and say it's good enough? (I already know the right answer :[ ).

I've polished off William W. Freehling's Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina 1816-1836. Is the only other book-length, modern treatment of the controversy Richard E. Ellis' The Union at Risk?