Ashraf Rushdy is Professor of African American Studies and Professor of English.
On his choices
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When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome
Richard E. Rubenstein (Harvest Books, 2000)
…a well-written, interpretive history of the flux of theological opinion in the 4th century, particularly the debate about the divinity of Christ. The author develops the main historical players, showing what was lost when what was once an energizing debate became instead a doctrinal battle whose victors excommunicated and anathematized the vanquished. It is also a wonderful study of the first generations of rulers of Constantinople who had an immense stake in these doctrinal debates.
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History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (two volumes)
Henry Adams (Library of America, 1986)
…a long and fascinating history of American domestic and foreign policy from 1800 to 1816. Adams is particularly brilliant in revealing how the governments of France, Spain, and England thought about and treated the young United States. The first volume is particularly impressive in its discussion of the convoluted process through which the Jefferson administration made the Louisiana Purchase, while the second volume is rich in details about particular battles in the War of 1812.
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Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur
Ben Kiernan (Yale University Press, 2007)
…a sobering study of genocidal regimes from the ancient world to our own. Although the book does have a major thesis—that genocides are attended by ideological obsessions about race, territorial expansion, agrarian romanticism, and a cult of antiquity—what is most remarkable is the range of genocidal massacres covered. It would be relentlessly dismal reading if it were not for the hope that this kind of knowledge can help us to diagnose and pre-empt present and future regimes committed to present and future genocides.