Guidelines for book reviews

Begin your review with the author, title, and facts of publication, using a standard bibliographical form, e.g.,

  Keegan, John.  A History of Warfare.  New York:  Knopf, 1994.

The following are some questions that might help guide you in writing a book review. It is recommended that you examine some scholarly reviews as examples before attempting your own.

1.        What is the author’s purpose in writing the book?

2.        What is the author’s thesis?  How does this thesis confirm or deny the prevailing historiographical wisdom of the field?

3.        How does the author organize his or her material?  What is the logic behind the topics of the chapters and how do the chapters go together to make a book?  You should be aware that there is almost always a “fit” between the thesis of the book and its organizational logic.  Each points to the other.  Thus if you are in doubt about the thesis, pay attention to the organizational logic, and vice versa.

4.        What concepts and what theories guide the author’s work?  Sometimes you will have to dig out the answers to these questions, but they are very often presented in the introduction of the book.  For example, is the author a Marxist, or a Weberian, or something else?  Answers to these questions might take you to reference books such as The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Raymond Williams’s Keywords, or the Dictionary of the History of Ideas.  This section can include a brief summary of the book, as well as the material describing theories and concepts.  But make sure that the summary is tied into the primary issue of concepts and theories.

5.        What sources does the author use to develop the thesis of the book and why are they used?  Do not give a laundry-list of sources.  Discuss such tings as types of sources used and the reasons for turning to some kinds of sources rather than others.

6.        How well is the author’s purpose accomplished?  In this section, you will have an opportunity to make an original, critical evaluation of the book.  You will want to address the issues of what is well done, poorly done, and originally done.