The 2022 Summer Reading Challenge

Starting June 1, you were asked to complete three (or more) of the tasks below. Each one prompted you to read a work that met a certain criterion. You might have read a “classic” in your field or something written by a historian in a different identity group. What counted as a “classic,” or an identity group? We left that up to you. One task encouraged you to read historical fiction, others “a history,” which we defined as a nonfiction work of any length—it could have been a book, an article, a chapter. The AHA hoped that the variety of tasks would encourage you to read widely—outside your field, your areas of expertise, and your personal experiences.

Ideally, participants completed at least one task per month in June, July, and August.

We also hoped you would talk to other participants about how you fulfilled the challenge. You were invited to check in on how others were thinking about the tasks, to exchange recommendations, and to share your progress on the AHA Member Forum or post on social media using the hashtag #AHAReads.

The 2022 #AHAReads tasks were:

• Read a “classic” of your field that you’ve never read before.
• Read a history published in the past 2 years.
• Read a piece of historical fiction (novel, story, poem, play) set in the time or place you study.
• Read a history of the place you know the most about that takes place at least a century before or after your time period of expertise.
• Read a history written by a historian who works in a day job different from your own.
• Read a history of an identity group you don’t belong to.

You can get a handy PDF checklist of the tasks and instructions here. Happy reading!

For those of you who met the reading goals (completing three or more of the reading tasks below), congratulations! We have a small token of appreciation you can download as a pdf.