ISA 2020 Happy Hour Reads: Books for Courses

Start your weekend off strong with this selection of excerpts from our ISA 2020 virtual exhibit! As Caelyn Cobb mentioned earlier today, these books would make great additions to a class, so settle in for some course reading inspiration.

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Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics

After Donald Trump’s election, two dystopian classics—1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale—skyrocketed to the New York Times best-seller list. This should come as no surprise: dystopian fiction has a lot to say about the perils of terrible governance in real life. Amy L. Atchison and Shauna L. Shames track how these narratives help us understand real-world politics in Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics. Read more about how you can work this book into a course with these sample syllabi.

United States Special Operations Forces, Second Edition

In the second edition of United States Special Operations Forces, two national-security experts put the exploits of America’s special operations forces in historical and strategic context. David Tucker and Christopher J. Lamb offer an incisive overview of America’s turbulent experience with special operations. Starting with in-depth interviews with special operators, the authors illustrate the diversity of modern special operations forces and the strategic value of their unique attributes.

amiliarize yourself with the types of armed forces and missions in the United States in the introduction to this work.

America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations, Sixth Edition

Today’s list ends with two works by Warren I. Cohen, one of America’s leading diplomatic historians. First up is the sixth edition of America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations, which has been updated with an examination of the policies under Barack Obama and the complications posed by the presidency of Donald Trump. In his introduction, Cohen looks back to the beginnings of Sino-American contact and conflict.

A Nation Like All Others: A Brief History of American Foreign Relations

Cohen’s A Nation Like All Others would make another great addition to a class on U.S. foreign policy. In this comprehensive account of American foreign relations from the nation’s founding through the present day, Cohen calls attention to the uses—and abuses—of U.S. international leadership. Read this preface for an overview of the belief in American exceptionalism and the United States as a force of good.