Hello r/AskHistorians!
I am planning to write my MA thesis about interdisciplinarity and the evolution of ideas, using the historiography of the Vietnam War as a case study. I have started to compile a few introductory texts, among which are the following:
However, I am not a historian by training, as my MA is in International Relations. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction as to which books to read to give me a broad idea about the different interpretations and/or camps that exists with regard to understanding the Vietnam War! Any other information would also be greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
Asoernipal
P.S. Sorry about the shitty links, my school does not permit access to most online resources so i have to procure them manually through other means...
This sounds like a very interesting thesis!
To help you out, I would recommend approaching your search with reading scholarly articles on the historiography. Hess is a great start, but I'd also add "Rethinking the Vietnam War: Orthodoxy and Revisionism" by Andrew Preston, International Politics Review 1 (2013), "Vietnam: Historians at War" by Mark Moyar, Academic Questions 21:1 (2008), and ”The Vietnam War as a Vietnamese War: Agency and Society in the Study of the Second Indochina War” by Edward Miller and Tuong Vu, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 4:3 (2009). These would all provide with different takes on the historiography of the war and would be able to guide you in understanding the development of it and the continuing historiography that is happening right now. To this, I'll also add Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War by Andrew Wiest and Michael J. Doidge (ed.) which should further your understanding of the topic.
Additionally, I'd recommend contrasting introductory texts like Peter Lowe's (ed.) The Vietnam War (1998) with the more recent and updated The Vietnam War: A Concise International History by Mark Atwood Lawrence (2010).
My suggestion to you would be to, perhaps, categorize the books you use according to the author's background. The majority of the early work on the Vietnam War were written by either journalists, politicians, or soldiers. Historians came much later and this has still impacted the scholarship of the war and the popular understanding of it. Furthermore, an emphasis on the 'Vietnamese Turn' of Vietnam War historiography should be made since this is often overlooked.
Peter Zinoman at UC Berkeley should be coming out with an interesting review of the Burns documentary on the Vietnam War that runs through the big changes in historiography over the past 30 years. I don't know when it's coming out but I've seen a draft. Send him an email requesting to read it and he might send it over.
I did an interview with him about the subject as well. Mods: not sure if this is an acceptable source.
Cindy Nguyen's reading lists might also be helpful.