An assignment for my first year seminar course asked students to research the social and economic background and context of ancient Israel’s prophets (they read Amos and Micah as part of the course’s assigned readings). I always like to check and see how easy or difficult it is to find useful materials. Below are some sources I found on Google Books which can be previewed and read there at least in part and which contain relevant information.
Hebrew Life and Literature by Bernard Lang
Eighth-Century Prophets: A Social Analysis by D. N. Premnath
Life in the Ancient Near East by Daniel Snell
Mesopotamia and the Bible edited by Chavalas and Younger
Israel’s Prophets and Israel’s Past
Social Justice in the Hebrew Bible by Bruce Malchow
Covenant Economics by Richard Horsley
God and the Social Process by Louis Wallis
The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible by David Pleins
Contending for Justice by Walter Houston
The Oxford History of the Biblical World, edited by Michael Coogan
The Hebrew Prophets by James Newsome
The Bible: An Introduction by Jerry Sumney
History of Israelite Religion by Alpertz
The Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew Bible edited by Leo Purdue
Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg
These are just the ones that seemed relatively recent, reliable and relevant. But even if students searched Google Books and chose older books over these, they still could find some useful information.
I’m thinking that perhaps I should create a blog entry like this for every research assignment I give to my students. Then, when I receive something the bibliography for which didn’t get much beyond Wikipedia, I can show what sorts of sources I found using Google. Perhaps then I won’t get too many complaints about low grades.
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