So I am prepping the next couple of months to take my prelim exams for my PhD in history.
The way the test is set up here is:
Written Exams
General Fields- US History 4 questions with 72 hours to respond
After that is over I have another 2 -3 days of written exams in specialized fields,
Specialized Fields:
If I survive all of that, then I have take an oral exam that should last from 2-4 hours.
Just to give you an idea of the scope of what I have to know, the Prof administering the Foreign Relations test sent a list of books and told me to add another 30 to the list in order to have a good foundation for answering the questions.
Here is the list I was given:
So if I take a crappy attitude towards anyone or any subject in the next month or two, I apologize, it's not me!
The way the test is set up here is:
Written Exams
General Fields- US History 4 questions with 72 hours to respond
- Overall US History
- Colonial US History
- 19th century US
- 20th century US
After that is over I have another 2 -3 days of written exams in specialized fields,
Specialized Fields:
- Military History
- US Foreign Relations
- Education - Outside specialization
If I survive all of that, then I have take an oral exam that should last from 2-4 hours.
Just to give you an idea of the scope of what I have to know, the Prof administering the Foreign Relations test sent a list of books and told me to add another 30 to the list in order to have a good foundation for answering the questions.
Here is the list I was given:
- Hunt, Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy
- Frank Lambert, Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World
- Thomas R. Hietala, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire
- Howard Jones, Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom
- Howard Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations
- Eric Love, Race over Empire: Racism and U.S. Imperialism, 1865 1900
- William Michael Morgan, Pacific Gibraltar: U.S.-Japanese Rivalry over the Annexation of Hawai'i, 1885-1898
- Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream: United States Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1895 1941
- Matthew Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad
- Thomas Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New Order
- Michael A. Barnhart, Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919 1941
- Mark Finlay, Growing American Rubber: Strategic Plants and the Politics of National Security
- Mark Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and US Strategy in World War 2
- J. Samuel Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan
- Melvyn Leffler, Specter of Communism: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1919 1953
- Stephen Rabe, US Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story
- Salim Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East
- Michael Grow, U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold
- Melanie McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East since 1945
- Christopher Endy, Cold War Holidays: American Tourism in France
- Peter Hahn, Caught in the Middle East: U.S. Policy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1945 1961
- Gary Hess, Presidential Decisions for War: Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf
- Michael Hunt, Lyndon Johnson's War: America's Cold War Crusade in Vietnam
- Thomas Borstelman, The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena
- Odde Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times
- Warren Cohen, The Asian American Century
So if I take a crappy attitude towards anyone or any subject in the next month or two, I apologize, it's not me!
