,
14 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
I have become obsessed with the beginnings of books. I think of the first words of a book as the beginning of a relationship between writer and reader. How do we introduce ourselves to this abstraction? A thread. 1/
Here's a beginning that hooked me with the first paragraph. I was in Jean Agnew's Approaches to Cultural History seminar. Loved the way Rhys Isaac, Transformation of Virginia, analogized historians to anthropologists. 
Does the book start with an intro, like Isaac, or a preface, or what? I always put acknowledgements at the end because they can interrupt that first meeting between writer and a reader who's not part of the thanked community. 3/
Some books begin with a story. Lein-Hang Nguyen opens Hanoi's War by placing you in Hanoi before the bombs fell in 1972. 4/
At the Dark End of the Street by @dmcguire13 also starts with a story which requires you to go to the next page, and continue. 5/
Sometimes a book begins by telling you, up front, what it's about. Here's @mkazin War Against War. 6/
Sometimes the opening, often a preface, explains how the writer embarked on this book journey. Here's Saidya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route. 7/
Lisa Budreau begins Bodies of War with her book journey. The end of a sentence at the top of the second page is the real hook. 8/
David Blight begins Race and Reunion with an interesting paragraph about the meantime of the Civil War, and that leads into a discussion of what the book is about in para 2. 9/
Some books begin with an idea that is so interesting you have to keep reading. Here's Gerald Linderman, Embattled Courage, on the idea that there are two memories of war: those of soldiers and civilians, and the difficulty this brings. 10/
(Marilyn Young insisted that I had to read Linderman, and of course she was right. You should, too.) 11/
Tony Judt has a Preface/Acknowledgements combo in Postwar. He begins with a para about Europe which show how overwhelming the task before him is, and then tells his book journey story. This brings the reader in for the thank yous that follow. 12/
I've saved a favorite for last. The intro to Adriane Lentz-Smith, Freedom Struggles, is beautiful. Begins with a spiritual, the spiritual becomes part of the story, and on p. 2 it opens a methodological argument. 13/
My goal w/ the first words is to cause the reader to feel that they must go on. Can be an idea or a story, but not a cheap hook. It should capture either the author or (my preference) the essence of the book. Would love to hear about other's ideas about book beginnings! end/
