Undergraduate reading list
Here you can find out a bit more about your department and how you can prepare for starting your journey with us.
Undergraduate reading list
Reading and viewing a wide range of different sources will be a central, and we hope enjoyable, part of your degree in American and Canadian Studies, whether you are studying it as a single honours degree, or a joint honours degree with another subject.
Once you get here, you’ll have access to multiple on-campus libraries to read and study in (as well as access to thousands of e-books). Until then, we’ve put together the below list of books that you might want to take a look at before you arrive.
If you are a single honours student, you will take all the modules listed below. If you are a joint honours student, you can see which American and Canadian Studies modules you will be taking from the list below.
Reading list
| Module code | Module title | Book title and link |
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AMCS1001
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'Race, Power, Money and the Making of North America 1607-1900'
(For single honours and joint honours with History and/or Politics)
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A Concise American History, by David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton, and Vivien Miller (Routledge, 2020)
If you enjoy reading then you can try any of the following which should be in a local library or second-hand bookshop:
- Barbara Hamby, A Free Man of Color (1997) – or any of the books in her Benjamin January series
- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920) or The House of Mirth (1905) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (1915)
- M. Jones, The Limits of Liberty: American History 1607-1992
You can also find the musical Hamilton on YouTube.
And there are lots of films on topics that we cover such as the US Civil War e.g. Glory (1989) or Ride With the Devil (1999), the American West e.g. Slow West (1915), and 19th century New York e.g. Gangs of New York (2003) or the recent Sky series on The Gilded Age (2022).
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AMCS1030
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'Approaches to Contemporary American Culture 1: An Introduction'
(For single honours and joint honours with History and/or Politics)
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A Concise American History, by David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton, and Vivien Miller (Routledge, 2020)
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AMCS1009
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'American Freedom? Empire, Rights, and Capitalism in Modern US History, 1900-Present'
(For single honours and joint honours with History and/or Politics)
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A Concise American History, by David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton, and Vivien Miller (Routledge, 2020)
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AMCS1031
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'Approaches to Contemporary American Culture 2: Developing Themes and Perspectives'
(For single honours and joint honours with History and/or Politics)
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A Concise American History, by David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton, and Vivien Miller (Routledge, 2020)
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AMCS1008
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'From Landscapes to Mixtapes: Canadian Literature, Film and Culture'
(For all single honours and joint honours with English and/or Film & TV Studies and/or Latin American Studies)
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Most of the teaching materials for this module will be available electronically free of charge via Hallward library or, in the case of film or television screenings, via services such as Box of Broadcasts. The texts listed below are hard-copy books which we will study in Semester 1:
Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (Week 11-12)
Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips (Week 5)
Roch Carrier, La Guerre, Yes Sir! (Week 7)
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AMCS1011
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'American Literature and Culture: Since 1940'
(For single honours and joint honours with English)
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John N. Duvall, The Cambridge Companion to American Fiction after 1945
Cynthia Lucia, Art Simon, and Roy Grundmann, American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Don DeLillo, White Noise
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
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AMCS1005
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'American Literature and Culture 1: 1830-1940'
(For single honours and joint honours with English and/or Film & TV Studies and/or Latin American Studies)
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Most of the teaching materials for this module will be available electronically free of charge.
Susan Castillo, American Literature in Context to 1865
Philip R. Yannella, American Literature in Context from 1865 to 1929
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Willian Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
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