Cue up the summer reading

In an annual ritual, a few weeks ago I asked the Fletcher faculty to recommend books for those who may want to pack a little preparatory reading into their pre-Fletcher summer.  There’s really no obligation to cast aside your beach-worthy paperbacks!  But, for those who want to feel more firmly on the grad school train, I’m happy to pass along some picks from the professors.

I’ll start with Prof. Uvin, who always comes through with some out-of-the-box choices.  He wrote:

The best books I have read this year are Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (a novel of the Vietnam War that brings war to life in a direct way I have never read before) and K Blows Top by Peter Carlson (a hysterically funny non-fiction book of Khrushchev’s visit to the U.S. in 1959 — pure Vonnegut, but all real!).  I am currently reading The Information by James Gleick, which is a stunningly ambitious, well-written and interesting book so far.  I am drowning in information already, and yet this book is a true pleasure in getting me to think differently about the flood I am in….

Next, even before I asked the professors, students were asking, and I happened to see the response of Prof. Fawaz to an inquiry about books on Syria’s politics, foreign policy, or history.  (Timely reading for any of us right now.)  Rather than provide a limited book list, Prof. Fawaz pointed the student toward several authors:  Abdul-Karim Rafeq, Hanna Batatu, Patrick Seale, Raymond Hinnebusch, and Steve Heydeman.

And, in response to my request, Prof. Blackhurst (who teaches in Fletcher’s GMAP program) reaffirmed a choice from last year, Pop Internationalism by Paul Krugman.  Prof. Blackhurst calls it “easy-to-understand economics,” and said, “Every essay in the book is very relevant to the Fletcher program.”

I’ll pass along the remaining suggestions in the next week or two.  Meanwhile, you can find previous years’ lists in the archives:  2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.  (There is more than one post in some years.  You can scroll through all the choices by going to the Our Faculty category.)