I just finished rading two books: The Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and The Samuri's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. One was for bookclub, the other recommended by a friend.
And, completely by coincedence, they both revolve around the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began with an invasion of China in 1937.
While I had heard of this, I certainly didn't know anything about it. Not that I do now, but I do know a bit more and have gone looking for information.
I just find it strange that I'd read two books back -to-back that center around the same historical period (unintentionally -- of course I've done on purpose....)
And, it once again, reinforces the thesis of my Historical Methods class I took senior year (whatever it was called) that teaching history through fiction (well-researched fiction) is a valid, valuable method. The professor did NOT agree with me (or maybe it was my orange crew cut he didn't like....)
3 comments:
Well, you'll be happy to hear that J. printed off a list of about twelve novels for his Euro class next year. Some are written at the time, like Dickens or Tolstoy, others are historical fiction, like Alexander or Crichton.
I think your former history teacher was full of crap. I've been watching the HBO series "Band of Brothers" and it's been a great introduction to one company's experience during WW 2. It's making me curious to read Stephen Ambrose's book.
A whole bunch of us read Colleen McCullough's books to "study" for Roman history exams. So much more appealing reading her well-researched but fictional take on historical figures, and much more memorable. I understand that the current generation of grad students watch the miniseries "Rome" for the same purpose.
I'm interested to read those books, Shana. My dad has talked about visiting Manchuria before the second Sino-Japanese war.
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