and now for something completely different.....

The influential books of my youth
From middle school to the first years of my professional life, these immediately came to mind.


One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (Signet Classics) (Paperback)
~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I read this book in the 6th grade, probably because my Dad had just finished it and had left in on a table in the living room. It changed my reading habits forever, leading me to abandon my beloved Tom Swift Jr. series for more substantial fare.


All Quiet on the Western Front
~ Erich Maria Remarque

I read this during the summer prior to my senior year in high school while i was recovering in bed from a strange illness. With lots of time on my hands, I read several books, I know, but this is the one that stands out in my memory. With the possibility of being drafted in the coming months if I didn't go to college, I remember becoming more interested in matters of war and peace that summer.

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Looking back, I wonder if my hostility to the war in Vietnam might have been shaped by this work, which I read during my sophomore year in high school.



The Catcher in the Rye
~ J.D. Salinger
I think my appreciation for wry, ironic humor was stimulated by this classic. It led me to books like A Separate Peace, but to The National Lampoon, too. The final book on this list is a selection probably stimulated by Salinger as well.



The Year Of Decision, 1846
~ Bernard DeVoto
I read this in a college course in the History of American Westward Expansion. I loved how he wove separate strands of events together to create this narrative history: the ill-fated Donner party, the Mexican War, the acquisition of Oregon. Great stuff!



Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism
~ Edgar Snow
This was an assigned reading for a course in modern Chinese History, I think in my freshman year of college. It confirmed in my mind that I wanted to major in history.

The Boys of Summer, Roger Kahn
A friend from my dorm was assigned this book in his course in modern U.S. History. Kahn opened my eyes to racial injustice.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein
This writer imagined a world without racial distinctions in this sci-fi classic.

Victors' Justice: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial
~ Richard R. Minear
I read this in a college course on Vietnam, taught by the author. It is not just the book that is so memorable, however. He influenced how I teach, as I do what he did, asking my students to become critical readers (asking, as he did of us, who is the author; what is his/her world view; what is his/her thesis; what arguments does the author provide in support of the thesis; were you persuaded?) Before he retired last year I contacted him to let him know how important he was to my career.


The Ginger Man
~ J.P. Donleavy
See The Catcher in the Rye