A summary of the author’s primary argument:
What is the author’s main idea – what is the ? What is/are the most important question(s) the author is asking? The author wants to teach you something, to convince you about a particular historical idea – what is it? What are the most important ways that author’s argument and evidence shapes our understanding of the historical topic? For historical fiction, ask similar questions. What is the author’s central theme or idea? What are the important questions that author is addressing in the work? The author wants to convey to the reader something – an idea, a point of view – so what is it? What are the ways the author uses historical evidence, and how does that evidence influence our perception of the book?
2. An analysis of the historical methods and sources the author used to develop her or his historical argument: How has the author organized the book – for example, is it organized chronologically, topically, thematically, or some other way? How has the historian crafted the book’s main argument? What evidence did the author use to prove and defend the argument?
3. Your scholarly assessment of the book: Did the author convince you about her or his argument, idea, or theme? Why, or why not? This is not mere personal opinion – an historian’s book review is not an expression of simple like or dislike, but a thoughtful assessment of the strength and weakness of the book, and the reviewer must also defend her or his assessments in the review. Did the evidence or other historical material support the author’s argument, theme or conclusion? What did you learn, or did not learn, from this book that makes it a valuable, or not valuable, contribution to our understanding of the historical topic? Why?
Format:
Professional historians who write book reviews, articles for historical journals, and historical monographs must conform to formatting requirements, including word limits and citation styles — editorial boards of historical publications will reject a historian’s work that does not meet formatting requirements. Likewise, your book review should be no longer than 4000 words including properly-formatted end-notes or footnotes. Be careful, complete, thoughtful, and thorough, but also be concise. Papers longer than 4000 word limit will receive no higher than a C grade on the assignment.
This paper must utilize Chicago Manuel of Style formatting. Papers that utilize another style format (MLA, APA, etc.) will get no higher than a C on the assignment. A brief overview of Chicago Style formatting can be found at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.
There are also many other online and published student formatting guides that illustrate Chicago formatting style.
