Foreign Service Reading List

If you want to join the U.S. Foreign Service or are interested in learning more about how the American foreign policy machine works from the inside, this list contains some valuable reading.

Foreign Service Life

Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the US Foreign Service (Kopp & Gillepsie, 2011)
The Foreign Service Companion: Moving Your Household Without Losing Your Mind (Midura & Friloux, eds., 2013)

Inside the Foreign Service Machine

America’s Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st Century Diplomacy (Nicholas Kralev, 2012)
Inside a U.S. Embassy: Diplomacy at Work (Shawn Dorman, 2011)
Managing Overseas Operations: Kiss Your Latte Goodbye (Ambassadors Engle & Nagy Jr., 2012)
Diplomacy (Henry Kissinger, 1995)

Preparing for the Foreign Service Officer Test

This section is based on the State Department’s official suggested reading list, which is current as of August 2013.

Current Affairs

Periodicals such as U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, Time, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Forbes, The New Yorker
A major daily newspaper such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times
Journals such as Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, and The New York Review of Books

English Usage

Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 16th ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. ISBN: 0226104206
Strunk, W., Jr. and White, E.B. The Elements of Style, 4th ed., Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. ISBN: 020530902X

United States (culture, foreign policy, history, politics)

Ambrose, Stephen E., and Douglas Brinkley. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938. New York: Penguin, 2011. ISBN: 0142004944
Davidson, J.W., et al. Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic, 6th ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. ISBN: 0073406848
Feagin, J.R. and Feagin, C.B. Racial and Ethnic Relations. 9th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. ISBN: 0205024995
Goldstein, J.S. and Pevehouse, J.S. International Relations, 10th ed., New York: Pearson Longman, 2011. ISBN: 97205059577
Hirsch E.D, Kett, J.F., and Trefil, J. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2002. ISBN: 0618226478
Jentleson, Bruce W. American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. ISBN: 0393933571
Morgan, William D., and Charles Stuart. Kennedy. American Diplomats: The Foreign Service at Work. New York: IUniverse, 2004. ISBN: 0595329748
Norton, M.B., et al. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, 9th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. ISBN: 0495915256
Paterson, Thomas G. American Foreign Relations: A History. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2009. ISBN: 0547225695
Rosati, J. The Politics of United States Foreign Policy. 5th ed., Belmont, CA : Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2010. ISBN: 0495797241
Woloch, N. Women and the American Experience, 5th ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2011. ISBN: 0073385573

World History and Geography

Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business, 2012. ISBN: 0307719219
Atlas of the World, 12th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 0195221478
Best, Antony. International History of the Twentieth Century and beyond. London: Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 0415438969
Craig, A.M., et al. The Heritage of World Civilizations, 7th ed., combined vol. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. ISBN: 0131926233
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. ISBN: 0393317552
Diamond, Larry Jay. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies throughout the World. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009. ISBN: 0805089136
Ferguson, Niall. Civilization: The West and the Rest. New York: Penguin, 2011. ISBN: 9780143122067
Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century. New York: W. Morrow, 1997. ISBN: 006050594X
Mishra, Pankaj. From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia. London: Allen Lane, 2012. ISBN: 1250037719
Area Studies Bose, Sugata, and Ayesha Jalal. Modern South Asia: History, Culture, and Political Economy. New York: Routledge, 2004. ISBN: 0415169526
Coll, Steven. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. New York: Penguin Press, 2004. ISBN: 0143034669
Gelvin, James L. The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. ISBN: 019989177X
Gordon, April A., and Donald L. Gordon. Understanding Contemporary Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2013. ISBN: 1588268470
Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 0143037757
King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 0195392396
Rosefielde, Steven, and Stefan Hedlund. Russia since 1980: Wrestling with Westernization. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. ISBN: 0521613841
Rubin, Barnett R. Afghanistan from the Cold War through the War on Terror. Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN: 0199791120
Rumer, B. and Zhukov, S. Central Asia: The Challenges of Independence. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. ISBN: 0765602547
Schell, Orville, and John Delury. Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Random House, 2013. ISBN: 0679643478
Shambaugh, David L. China Goes Global: The Partial Power. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. ISBN: 0199860149
Yergin, Daniel. The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. New York: Penguin, 2012. ISBN: 0143121944

Consular and Immigration

Carens, Joseph H. Immigrants and the Right to Stay. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2010. ISBN: 0262014831
Joppke, Christian. Citizenship and Immigration. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity, 2010. ISBN: 0745642357
Kanstroom, Dan. Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2010. ISBN: 0674046226
Martin, David A., and Peter H. Schuck. Immigration Stories. New York: Foundation, 2005. ISBN: 158778873X
Motomura, Hiroshi. Americans in Waiting, The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc. 2006. ISBN: 0195163451
Takaki, Ronald T. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Back Bay and Little Brown, 2008. ISBN: 0316022365

Economics and Public Policy

Hall, R.E. and Papell, D.H. Macroeconomics: economic growth, fluctuations, and policy. 6th ed., New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. ISBN: 0393975150
Mankiw, G. Principles of Microeconomics, 6th ed., Mason, OH : Thomson South-Western, 2012. ISBN 0538453044
Murray, Williamson, Richard Hart. Sinnreich, and Jim Lacey. The Shaping of Grand Strategy: Policy, Diplomacy, and War. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. ISBN: 0521156335
Rushefsky, M.E. Public Policy in the United States: At the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, 4th ed., Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. ISBN: 978976561663
Shultz, G.P. and Dam, K.W. Economic Policy Beyond the Headlines, 2nd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 0226755991

Management and Human Behavior

Gerrig, R.J. Psychology and Life, 20th ed., Boston: Pearson, 2013. ISBN: 0205859135
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Publisher: Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (April 1, 2007). Language: English. ISBN: 0316010669
Gleitman, H., Gross, J., and Reisberg, D. Psychology, 8th ed., New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. ISBN: 0393932508
Griffin, R.W. Fundamentals of Management: Core Concepts and Applications, 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2012. ISBN: 0538478756
Moorhead, G. and Griffin, R.W. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, 10th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 2012. ISBN: 0538478136
Schneider, S., and Barsoux, J., Managing Across Cultures, 2nd ed., Harlow, England; New York : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003. ISBN: 027364663X
Twomey, D.P. Employment Discrimination Law: A Manager’s Guide: Text & Cases. 6th ed. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western, 2005. ISBN: 0324271301

Public Affairs and the Media

Dominick, J.R. The Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in the Digital Age, 11th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010. ISBN: 0073378887
Houston, B. (eds) The investigative reporter’s handbook: a guide to documents, databases, and techniques, 5th ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. ISBN: 0312589972
Itule, B.D. and Anderson, D.A., News Writing and Reporting for Today’s Media, 7th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2006. ISBN: 0072981091
Morrison, T., and Conaway, W. A. Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands. 2nd ed. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2006. ISBN: 1593373686
Osborn, M., and Osborn, S. Public Speaking, 9th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2012. ISBN: 0205912257
Samovar, L.A. Porter R.E., and McDaniel, E.R. eds. Intercultural Communication: A reader, 13th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2011. ISBN: 0495898317
Ting-Toomey, Stella, and Leeva C. Chung. Understanding Intercultural Communication. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. ISBN: 019973979X