Reddit mentions of The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

There's a great essay in a book called The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature which has examples and literary analysis. Some of the other essays in there are pretty rad as well, actually.

Pick up:

Schiffman's From Text to Tradition, a History of Judaism in Second Temple and Rabbinic Times: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism
Ben Sasson's A History of the Jewish People (parts 3 & 4)
The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
Lee Levine's The Rabbinic Class of Roman Palestine in Late Antiquity
Hershel Shanks' Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Early Development
Jeffrey Rubenstein The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud
Safrai, Shmuel, ed. The Literature of the Sages. Vol. 1 and 2. Assen- Van Gorcum; Philadelphia- Fortress Press, 1987-2006.
Stemberger, Günter and Hermann Strack. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash.
Avi-Yonah, Michael. The Jews of Palestine- a Political History from the Bar Kokhba War to the Arab Conquest.
Neusner's A History of the Jews in Babylonia (several parts)