Today:
Saturday Reading and Research will focus on exactly that: the history you have been reading this week and the research you've been working on. It's also the prime thread for requesting books on a particular subject. As with all our weekly features, this thread will be lightly moderated.
So, encountered a recent biography of Stalin that revealed all about his addiction to ragtime piano? Delved into a horrendous piece of presentist and sexist psycho-evolutionary mumbo-jumbo and want to tell us about how bad it was? Need help finding the right book to give the historian in your family? Then this is the thread for you!
My first semester at college as a history major ended a bout a week ago and I had a great time. Met many great people and got all A's. (4.0 average. Let's hope I get Summa Cum Laude. 😀)
Anyways, prior to college, I greatly considered specializing in 20th American History. Now that I finished my first semester, I decided that America 1945-present would be a good focus for me, especially to study American Conservatism. Given how Trump is the president and conservative commentators are/have been on a great rise, I started to follow them; mostly Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and PragerU. (My recent questions are actually about fact checking them.) I find their viewpoints on the present day issues fascinating (not that I agree with them. I usually don't.) so I want to study the history of American conservatism to understand why they think what they do and how their opinions affected the greater American culture.
As a college freshmen, where should I go from here? Should I continue listening to Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson or should I just listen to older commentators like Buckley? Should I read the books in the r/askhistorians booklist about American Conservatism now or should I wait until I take an American Conservatism class in college?
Thank you in advance and I look forward to next semester.
PS - I was going to take a History of American Conservatism class next semester but it didn't fit in my schedule so I will take it next year. I will take a US Civil War class next semester
A Hideous Monster of the Mind all about race theory in "early" America -it goes to the 1850s- is in the can. It wasn't bad, but was really dry. I'm not sure I followed every fine distinction, but I know where to get them if I need to now.
From there I have started The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, which I thought was a big meta survey like Slavery & Social Death but looks like it's actually a history of antislavery and proslavery thought on those lines. Much more in what I've long studied than anticipated, which is both pleasant and disappointing. But I enjoy Davis' prose so I'm not going to complain too much.