Among the modern Americanist grad students at Ohio University, Alonzo Hamby's reading lists were legendary. He taught the three-course sequence covering the United States since 1898 with a heavy dose of political history. The lists (each segment of the sequence had its own) were many pages long, with a system that gave double and single asterisks to the best or most important works. By the time you were done with the three classes you had the most extensive, daunting comps reading list imaginable. There is a reason why Hamby's comprehensive examination is legendary, and this list of hundreds of books pretty clearly gives an indication as to why.
It looks like Tom has taken the lead among our OU cohort in establishing a Hamby-esque reading list in which he will lay out the most important works related to the field of military history. He has taken on one of those endeavors that we all say we would like to do one day but that is so daunting that most of us never end up doing it. I wish him luck and will wait for the final product, then will cut and paste and simply steal all of his work. I do not do military history, but a good bibliography is a joy to behold.
(Tom gave the heads-up on this project over at Big Tent.)
No comments:
Post a Comment