Reading History Books in Grad School

Loyal readers of B4H know that Chris and me are both in graduate school. I’m not sure how Chris’s experience is in the load of reading that he had in his undergraduate experience compared to his graduate one, but I know that for me the load is less in graduate school than it was in my undergraduate. But i realize that may not be the case for many students out there. Furthermore, one book a week can be stressful for people who work full time as opposed to those who only focus on school on a weekly basis.

This interesting blog had a piece last month on how to read a history book in one hour. I think this can be a helpful tool for students in undergraduate or graduate programs out there. I know it can be very helpful for historians (as a full time history student at CSUF, I consistently had to read about 3-4 300+ page books per week). Perhaps it could be useful for high school students too (But only if they have a background on what they are reading, and perhaps, if Chris agrees, with AP students who need to fill a lot of information quickly). Anyhow, here is the list:

1. Create a clean space–a table, the book, paper and a writing utensil, and nothing else.

2. Read two academic reviews of the book you photocopied beforehand. Don’t skip this step, these will tell you the book’s perceived strengths and weakness. Allow five minutes for this.

3. Read the introduction, carefully. A good intro will give you the book’s thesis, clues on the methods and sources, and thumbnail synopses of each chapter. Work quickly but take good notes (with a bibliographic citation at the top of the page.) Allow twenty minutes here.

4. Now turn directly to the conclusion and read that. The conclusion will reinforce the thesis and have some more quotable material. In your notes write down 1-2 direct quotes suitable for using in a review or literature review, should you later be assigned to write such a beast. Ten to fifteen minutes.

5. Turn to the table of contents and think about what each chapter likely contains. You may be done–in many cases in grad school the facts in any particular book will already be familiar to you, what is novel is the interpretation. And you should already have that from the intro and conclusion. Five minutes.

6. (Optional) Skim 1-2 of what seem to be the key chapters. Look for something clever the author has done with her or his evidence, memorable phrases, glaring weaknesses–stuff you can mention and sound thoughtful yourself when it is your turn to talk in the seminar room. Ten minutes, max.

7. Put the notes and photocopied review in a file folder and squirrel it away. These folders will serve as fodder for future assignments, reviews of similar books, lectures, grant applications, etc.

8. Miller time. Meet some friends and tell them the interesting things you just learned (driving it deeper it your memory).

Of course, this can be a difficult thing for someone like me, who was taught to read a book from beginning to end. But I hope this is a helpful tool for y’all.