MA History Reading Lists

These lists must be understood as a starting point, as indeed should syllabi from relevant colloquia. MA comprehensive exams are not limited to these lists or a particular class and, in fact, any question on a book from one of these lists would not be limited to its content but rather would ask for the arguments to be contextualized more broadly in terms of major debates within the field.

United States History 

  • Early U.S. (from the British Atlantic and American Revolution to the early decades of the New Nation, cf. HIST 6110 and 6115)
  • Modern U.S. (from the Sectional Conflict through the Twentieth Century, cf. HIST 6120 and 6125)

European History

  • Medieval (from Late Antiquity to the beginnings of early modernity, cf. HIST 6235).* 
  • Early Modern (from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, cf. HIST 6240)
  • Modern Europe (from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries, cf HIST 6245 and 6250)

Global History

  • Global History (focusing on major issues, methodologies, and historiography in global history from 1500 to present; cf. HIST 6300)