History 450
Tygiel
Each student is required to write three book reports based on the assigned monographs. The reports should be 1100-1700 words in length. Papers that are too long will be returned to be shortened. All papers should include pagination and word count. Do not use an overly small print font. For late paper penalties see Late Paper Policy. The papers are due on the following dates:
Please note that these are book reports rather than book reviews. We are less concerned with the quality of each book (the writing, the style, its readability) than with its content (its thesis, arguments, and supporting evidence). It is also necessary to place the subjects covered in these books into historical context, using specific examples from the course textbook (Rice, Bullough, and Orsi, The Elusive Eden), and comparing and contrasting the how topics are dealt with in each monograph and the textbook. Students also should follow the guidelines for writing laid out in the handout, Writing Papers. A sample book report may be found on the class web page.
Your book reports should follow the following format and address the following issues:
PREPARING TO WRITE THE REPORT
When reading each book, be sure to underline the subject,
central theme, and key points and arguments made by the author. Note
carefully which items of evidence presented by the author you will use in the
book report. After you have read the book review your underlinings and
arrange them into an outline that you will use in writing your report. In
general, the more detailed the outline, the less time it will take you to write
your paper. It is a good idea to use an outline program, such as the
outline facility in Microsoft Word to organize these notes.
CITING THE BOOK
The book report should begin with an appropriate citation
of the book. The citation should include the author's name, the full book
title (italicized or underlined), the place of publication, the publisher, and
the date of publication. This information may be found on the title page
of each book and the page immediately following it. For example, an
appropriate citation for Thrown Among Strangers would be:
Douglas Monroy, Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990.
INTRODUCTION
Your introduction should indicate
the subject of the book, i.e., what the book is about. It should also include
your own central thesis, the argument that you
will be making about the book . Your central
thesis should describe the ways that the book enhances or detracts from our
understanding of California History. For more on creating a central
thesis, see Writing Papers. You should be
able to express these ideas without writing in the first person. ("I am
going to discuss..." "My central theme is...")
The introduction (or the second
paragraph at the latest) should also identify the central theme and purpose of
the book under discussion. You usually can find this in the book's
introduction and conclusion. Read the book's introduction and conclusion
carefully in order to find these concepts. Try to locate and use the
quotations that best demonstrate the author's intent and thinking.
THE AUTHOR'S ARGUMENTS AND EVIDENCE
The major part of your paper
should be devoted to showing how the author has developed his central theme
throughout the book. What are the arguments she advances in support of
this theme? What is the evidence that he presents to prove this? To
achieve this you must summarize the books.
In a good book review, you demonstrate that you thoroughly understand the book
and that you are able to present the author's interpretations more succinctly
and clearly than they appear in the book itself.
In some books, particularly those
like Monroy or McGirr that have relatively few chapters, you might adopt a
chapter-by-chapter approach, summarizing the arguments and evidence offered in
each chapter. You might also address this through a more topical approach,
identifying major themes and subjects and then seeing how the author returns to
them throughout the book. This might be a more appropriate approach for a
book like McWilliams which has many chapters and subchapters. In any
event what you choose to summarize should relate to and stem from your own
central theme.
The summaries should be specific
rather than general. Use specific historical examples to back up your own
arguments. Be sure to indicate dates of eras and events. Select
appropriate quotations that best illustrate the author's intent. Keep in
mind that in order to keep within the paper length limits, you must select and
choose the best examples and quotations.
INCORPORATING THE TEXTBOOK
You must also make
reference to the course textbook in these essays. Note how the text book
addresses the issues raised in the monographs. Use specific examples from
the text to make these points. Describe and attempt to resolve any
differences that arise between the two accounts.
CITATIONS
It is not necessary to use
footnotes or endnotes in your reports. However you should use
parenthetical citations to indicate the source of quotations or specific
information. For example if the information comes from page 15 of Monroy
the citation should appear as (Monroy, 15). A reference to an item taken
from page 222 of the textbook should read (Rice, 222). Footnotes or
endnotes are required if you use information from books not assigned for this
course.