ZTC (Zero Textbook Course) CLASSES
Effective for Summer Intersession 2019 and all future terms, ALL of my courses will be ZERO TEXTBOOK COURSE sections.
All required readings will be posted in the course Canvas site.
If you wish to obtain bound paper copies of chapters posted in the Canvas site, free copies are available from the Palomar College Library Instructor Reserve section, 1st floor.
Where to Buy and How to Use the Course Books
If you are concerned about the number of books assigned for these courses, consider the following:
- There are no traditional textbooks for the History of the Americas.
- There are many one-volume texts for the History of Latin America, but for the most part they are very expensive and they present the author’s interpretation of events. I believe in presenting multiple interpretations, so I use a very inexpensive text for this course while suggesting others to provide a balance of voices.
- Unfortunately there are few if any texts in translation by Latin American authors, and most of these are novels. Therefore I assign several novels by Spanish American and Brazilian authors.
- For this course, students may replace several texts with others that cover topics of special interest to you.
- Audible Books are digital copies that you can listen to through your computer, phone, or tablet. Audible is affiliated with Amazon.com and increasingly both Kindle and Audible copies of a book can be purchased at a reduced price, and “synced” when reading and listening.
- This is the case with the Woodard, Starr, and Pagden books.
- As there are no exams for these courses, only short essays, reports, and projects, you will not be memorizing information from these readings, but rather reviewing them for their content and themes.
- By the end of the course, many students are surprised that history books can be so well written and interesting! All of assigned readings from these books have one author and narrower themes than one volume texts with multiple authors.
- Most of these books can be obtained for free from local college and public libraries.
- Please read below under Instructor Reserve Copies and Other Libraries. Those books that can be obtained through libraries are marked with an asterix – * – in the book lists.
Where to Find the Books
Just so you know:
- I am not in the business of selling books.
- I do not receive any money from Amazon.com for providing links to the Amazon site.
- I do want you to get into the habit of reading good history books, AND using your local public libraries.
- In several of my classes you will be required to visit a library, use library databases online, and check out a book.
If you are concerned about the costs for these books, please read below under Instructor Reserve Copies and Other Libraries.
- Every semester I place books on reserve in the Palomar College Library.
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Instructor Reserve Copies – Palomar College Library
Copies of the Boyden, Carr, Cumings, Demos, Fischer, Greer, Kamen, Kinzer, Kotkin, Mann, Pagden, Pierce, Restall, Skidmore and Smith, Starr, Sweig, Turchin, and Woodard books are available for one-week student check-out from the Instructor Reserve service of the Palomar College Library, 2nd floor.
Consult the Online Reserve Desk to check on the availability of these titles. Search the Reserve Desk by my last name: Arguello
Other Libraries
The Cumings, Demos, Fischer, Kamen, Mann, Pagden, Restall, Starr, and Woodard books should be available in most public libraries, wherever you live in the United States.
San Diego Circuit
If not available in your local public library branch, you should be able to obtain most course books through either the San Diego City Library or San Diego County Library systems.
You can also request that these books be delivered to your local public library using the San Diego Circuit system. This network provides you with access to books at: UCSD, USD, SDSU, CSU San Marcos, and the San Diego City or County systems.
For example, the San Diego City Public Library has 28 copies of the book by Charles Mann, 1493!
Read more about the San Diego Circuit here (San Diego City Public Library) and here (County Library).
To use any of these systems, it is necessary to have a library card for one of these systems.
Follow this link at the Palomar College Library page for links to other local libraries, including the San Diego Circuit..
International Students
For students taking my online courses in Europe and Asia, Amazon UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Japan have many of these course books available!