Reading Lists

I took the economic history field exam today. Five essays in three hours meant a lot of rushed writing! I felt comfortable that I knew the subject matters and hope I was able to make my points clearly despite the rush. The exam covered the reading list from the first year economic history course taught by Brad Delong and Barry Eichengreen and from Eichengreen's European Economic History course.

So it was interesting to see that Eichengreen composed a summer reading list for Europeans, published at Project Syndicate. I have only read part of one of the four recommended books-- several chapters from Friedman and Schwartz' s A Monetary History of the United States. In fact, I discussed it on my field exam (probably incoherently, since I was down to the last 20 minutes!) I hope to get to the Kindleberger book at some point, but I've still got to finish Eichengreen's Golden Fetters for my book club, and a few more of his books that I bought.

I'm also on a Russian literature kick. This summer I read, and was blown away by, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. I think it is worth a future post. Now I am reading Pnin by Nabokov, which is more laugh-aloud funny than Anna Karenina.