how to write a historical book review

Introduce the author, the historical period and topic of the book. Tell the reader what genre of history this work belongs to or what approach the author has used. Set out the main argument. Summarize the book's organization and give a little more detail about the author's sub-arguments. Here you would also work in your assessment of the ...

This is the equivalent to a thesis statement. Do NOT spend more than one-third or so of the paper summarizing the book. The summary should consist of a discussion and highlights of the major arguments, features, trends, concepts, themes, ideas, and characteristics of the book. While you may use direct quotes from the book (make sure you always ...

Writing a Book Review for History. Your professor may ask you to write a book review, probably of a scholarly historical monograph. Here are some questions you might ask of the book. Remember that a good review is critical, but critical does not necessarily mean negative. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, nor is it a suggested outline.

Below the title and citation, write the body of the book review in essay form without subtitles. As you write your book review, remember that your goal is to analyze the text by discussing the strengths and weaknesses—as opposed to summarizing the content. You should also note that it's best to be as balanced as possible in your analysis.

This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews. ... Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer: Judith Bennett's Ale ...

First, you specify the argument or thesis of the book. There may be more than one thesis to a book; often there are one or two main theses supported by minor arguments. You do not tell what the book is about (e.e. this book is about Elizabethan government) but rather what the books says (e.g. the author argues that Parliament was not an ...

4) In the process of point 3 above, use brief paraphrases or citations from the book. Block quotes (longer than three lines) are not necessary - They take up too much space in a short review. 5) Compare the book to works by others. Use other reviews to help you find things (and article indexes like "Historical Abstracts" to find reviews).

You can see examples of reviews in virtually any historical journal, and these may help you to write your own review. Reviews are a vital part of academic life, as you will see in the journals. Most professors regularly read and write reviews to find interesting books, stay informed of new work, and ensure that their voices continue to be heard ...

Writing a historical book review can be different from a standard review, since it must be read and critiqued on the topic with understanding and research. Unlike a summary, a historical book review needs to be effective and analytical. The following links will assist you in the writing a book review:

Book Reviews. Writing a book review, a comparative book review, or an historiographical essay (basically, a review of several secondary sources on a single topic) is a good way to practice one of the key features of historical analysis—assessing history scholarship (aka "secondary sources").

The following is not a definitive list but merely suggestive of books you might like to review. If you have other ideas please discuss them with your seminar tutor: P. Blickle, The Communal Reformation (1992) Th. A.Brady Jr, The Politics of the Reformation in Germany (1997) O. Brunner, Land and Lordship (1995)

NOTE: Since most course assignments require that you write a critical rather than descriptive book review, the following information about preparing to write and developing the structure and style of reviews focuses on this approach. I. Common Features. While book reviews vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features. These include:

How to Write a Book Review: Consider a Book's Promise. A book makes a promise with its cover, blurb, and first pages. It begins to set expectations the minute a reader views the thumbnail or cover. Those things indicate the genre, tone, and likely the major themes.

Step 1: Planning Your Book Review - The Art of Getting Started. You've decided to take the plunge and share your thoughts on a book that has captivated (or perhaps disappointed) you. Before you start book reviewing, let's take a step back and plan your approach.

Be sure to mention the authors of the title and what experience or expertise they bring to the title. Check Stefan Kløvning's review of Creativity Cycling for an example of a summary that establishes the framework of the book within the context of its field. Step 2. Present your evaluation.

Reviews Guide. Reviewing books and other forms of scholarship—including films, public history sites and museums, document collections, digital projects, podcasts, and many other genres—is a primary responsibility of the American Historical Review. The AHR carefully selects reviewers, ensuring that they have demonstrated sufficient expertise ...

The trick is to provide the necessary summary in as short a space as possible. You will repeat the book author's ideas, not your own, so this section should only be a small part of your review. The second task is to describe the work itself. That is, rather than telling the story of the Erie Canal, you are now telling a story about how Carol ...

It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking. Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry's Freefall, a crime novel: In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it's a more subtle process, and that's OK too.

A Historiographic Essay (also known as a Historiographic Review or, outside of the history discipline, a Literature Review) is a systematic and comprehensive analysis of books, scholarly articles, and other sources relevant to a specific topic that provides a base of knowledge.Literature reviews are designed to identify and critique the existing literature on a topic, justifying your research ...

Writing a book review is one of to essentials skills this per historian must studying. An undergraduate student's book rating need fulfill couple main destinations: Lay out a author's argument, and; Most importantly, critique the historical argument. It is important to remember the ampere book review is nay a book report.

Writing a historical book review can be different from a standard review, since it must be read and critiqued on the topic with understanding and research. Unlike a summary, a historical book review must be effective and analytical. Check the following guides for assistance: How to Write a Book Review (University of Calgary, Department of History)

Historical context. Understanding historical context is crucial for anyone writing a history book. Writers should dive into the political, social, cultural and economic dynamics that shaped the time under examination. Learning to contextualize events within the broader framework of their era helps readers grasp the motivations, challenges and ...

Gates traces the history of slave narratives, a genre that "always told the story" of how enslaved authors "learned to read and write, and always, always, of course, of their escape to ...

Books Book Reviews Fiction Nonfiction March books 50 ... Perhaps the next task for a historian of Hahn's caliber is to write a history of the United States that makes no recourse to the category ...

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. Fugitive Pieces. $17. AMAZON. Exquisitely rendered, Michaels's 2007 novel is told in two sections. The first half begins in Poland, where seven-year-old Jakob ...

The cognitive revolution ‒ how Homo sapiens came to dominate the Earth, thanks to our unique ability to believe in shared myths; The agricultural revolution ‒ the transformation from foraging ...

A first century religious leader named Jesus was brutally executed as a criminal in first century Jerusalem. His death should have ended the movement. He left behind him a ragtag group of poorly ...