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Writing a book review is one of the fundamental skills that every historian must learn. An undergraduate student’s book review should accomplish two main goals: Most importantly, critique the historical argument. It is important to remember that a book review is not a book report.
A first-class review will excel in all these aspects, an upper second will demonstrate good competence / clarity of expression, while lower marks will reflect limited critique, historiographical coverage and lucidity of argument.
For our purposes, a good book review should: start with full bibliographic details of the book discussed in the heading; summarise the structure, method and main points of the work, which may include some direct quotes (identified by inverted commas and the relevant page no following in round brackets);
This document provides guidance on how to write an effective book review in history. It explains that the goals of an undergraduate book review are to lay out the author's argument and critique the historical argument.
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 answer will help you to review the book. How does the author go about accomplishing his/her goals? There are several component parts to this question: 1) goal or intention of book – who is the audience? what is the book setting out to do?
How to write a history book review is a common question for students. Follow our tips on how to write a history book review and you’ll get the best grades.
