- Include the bibliographical information in a header ON THE FIRST PAGE ONLY – just like you see it in the sample, up to and including the type and price of book.
- Your class number, name and page number in a footer ON EACH PAGE.
- 1-inch margins are acceptable.
Other notes:
Generally, a book review is 3 pages. Any less and you have not done enough, anymore and you have probably gone overbroad and missed the mark.
A critical book review does not mean that you criticize the work, it means you critique it. Think of t e following points as you review your book:
- Who is the author and why is he/she an expert in the field? What other work have they done? This is not license to provide a personal biography of the author.
- What is author attempting do to in the work? (Why did he-she write it?)
- How is the author accomplishing his/her objective? (tactic, tone, research, photos, graphics, memoir, approach?
- Did the author accomplish the task? Why or Why not?
- What could he/she have done better?
- What was the most successful aspect of the work?
- Is this a valuable contribution to the study of history in general, the topic in particular? (What did you learn from this work? What most surprised/impressed you?)
- To whom would you recommend this book? (Colleagues, Freshmen students, advanced History majors, the general public, History buffs, teachers?
Keep the first person out of your review. You did not have a personal experience with the book, you had an academic experience. Instead of using “I and we,” use terms like the reader, the student etc in both singular and plural. You want to maintain a professional/academic distance from the subject and your reader. Your critique serves as a valuable contribution to the field.
