College student seeks book recommendations (Saturday night vanity request)

My daughter's suggestion ^ | 9/17/15 | A devoted mom

[jocon307]

My daughter has asked me to ask you all to recommend books on foreign affairs for her college course on International relations. My understanding is they must be non-fiction and pertain to the US relations with other nations, but other than that the field is wide open. They can be about any time in our history, any country, wide ranging or very specific and, of course, excellent writing always preferred. Thanks in advance to all who care to respond!

[jocon307]

I thought folks might have some fun with this on a weekend. My daughter and her circle of conservative friends all must chose one extra book to read for this semester's class, so many recommendations here may find an eager reader. I promise to make good notes and pass them on, I'll also try and get her to lurk and read the thread, so we may get her, and some of her buddies, hooked on FR in the process.

How much of a mom do I sound like?

Thanks guys and gals, you know it all!

[pillbox_girl]

Podkayne of Mars by Heinlein

[combat_boots]

Infiltration, by Sperry.

[True Capitalist]

If I were to pick one book it would be:

Paul Johnson: A History of the Americcan People

[lonestar67]

The Case for Democracy
Natan Sharansky

[warchild9]

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy

Every college student should learn about the cyclic nature of history from the very beginning.

[penelopesire]

a few links so she can find other links..lol

http://www.nps.edu/
Naval War College Post Graduate school

Policy review: the lib profs will 'accept' this

http://www.policyreview.org/

my son is in college studying Political Science.. I will ask him and get back to u.

[KC Burke]

International relations, any period in time...they is nothing superior in the conservative universe to:

Reflections on the Revolution in France,
Edmund Burke.

[justche]

It's 20 years old. But From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters is the best book about the Middle East - Arab/Jewish Conflict (over Palestine), that I've ever read.

[Nothometoday]

I would suggest *anything* sociology related.
Also, " history of the United states" may help with background. I have many copies, in both realms.
GOOD luck to your daughter!


BTW, I am a former library assistant, for several years. Hurt my back, now stay home, with a few good walkign days here and there. Any book discussion..I will do my best.

[CondorFlight]

Anything by Paul Johnson, or Bat Ye'or; Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy"

[KamperKen]

"Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson.

Its important that college kids see what true bastards the supposed saviors of mankind really were/are.

[keithtoo]

MODERN TIMES, Paul Johnson, if she misses this ONE BOOK, all the rest will be lessened.

[SunnyUsa]

bk'marked

[jocon307]

"Any book discussion..I will do my best."

Thank you so much!

And thanks too, to everyone who offers a suggestion/

[HarryCaul]

Somewhat on topic, I just finished _The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World 1700-2000_ by Niall Ferguson. Not strictly about US-foreign relations, but of course that plays a key part.

Very readable, and very relevant to seeing some of the less-discussed aspects of what's going on in world relations today.

For example, this 2001 book has a chapter on the concept of "understretch", the idea that great powers can suffer if they don't spend *enough* on wars. Here's a sample from that chapter (in 2001)-

"The question has frequently been asked and deserves repetition: would it not be desirable for the US to depose tyrants like Saddan and impose democratic government on this coutnries? The idea of invading a country, deposing its dictators, and imposing free elections at gunpoint is generally dismissed as incompatible with American 'values'. A common argument s that the US could never engage in the kind of overt imperial rule practised by Britain in the nineteenth century. Yet is often forgotten that this was precisely what was done in Germany and Japan at the end of the Second World War, and with great and lasting success."

And so on.

Definitely worth a read.

[Lejes Rimul]

Ding ding ding ding ding, we have a winner. Rise and Fall is the only truly indispensable text I have ever encountered in foreign affairs.

[NavySEAL F-16]

Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

America's Thirty Years War: Who is Winning? by Vazsonyi, Balint

A Concise History of the Crusades

What Went Wrong : Approaches to the Modern History of the Middle East

The CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER Samuel P. Huntington

On China, I would get the several books by Bill Gertz.

[Ragnorak]

"A World Restored" It isn't about US relations but it was written by Henry Kissinger. It covers the Metternich Era. One of the best books I've read.

"Statecraft" by Margaret Thatcher was a great one as well.

[warchild9]

I wished I had studied Kennedy when I first set out on my quest for my PhD way, way back. His work is a shortcut to many concepts and insights which require quite a few years of academic effort to attain.