Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
2. When you write a book review you should be concerned with informing the reader of your review as fully, but concisely, as possible why the work that you are discussing is useful, useless, or in-between. The reader of your essay should be able to judge from it whether or not it will be valuable for him/her to read the book. A BOOK REVIEW IS MOST EMPHATICALLY NOT A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK though it will of necessity summarize the argument of the book. It must be more than the notes found on the book’s dust jacket. A review should be clearly written, and it should show an understanding of the book’s content and intent.
II. A good book review contains all of the following information:
1. A title page is necessary. In the upper right hand corner of the first page should appear the following: a. your name, b. the course and section for which it is written, c. the date. A book review has no title! The citation is all that is needed.
2. The citation. The review should begin with a complete and formal bibliographic citation which provides the following: Author, Title, Edition, Place of Publication, publisher, Date of Publication, and Number of pages. You may wish to indicate in your review whether it is indexed, appendixed, illustrated, etc. Consult a style manual and/or professional journal for examples.
3. Subject. The subject of the book. This should tell in two or three terse sentences what the book discusses and the scope of that discussion.
4. Expected audience. For what type of audience is the book intended? Specialists? Historians? College students? The general public? How can you tell? Does the reader need to have a basic knowledge of the general subject before the book can be appreciated? Hint: it may well be that your book is addressed to some combination of the above and has a different message for each one of them.
5. Who is the author? Does he/she have any special training or qualifications which are relevant? Is he/she someone who has never visited France writing about French culture? Is he/she a professional Historian? Author? Other academic professional? Include anything which would help explain the bias of the book. EVERY BOOK HAS A BIAS! Is the author for example French or Irish writing about England? Is the author a Roman Catholic writing about Protestants? Consult a reference work to find out about the author. (eg. Who’s Who or American Directory of Scholars, etc.)
6. What are the sources that the author uses? Are they primary or secondary? Does the author criticize them internally and externally? Is the documentation complete? Are they cited in the text? In the notes? Are they mentioned at all? What does this tell you?
7. What is the book’s thesis? This is the most important point of all. No book review is complete without significant attention devoted to an examination of the author’s thesis! What is the author trying to prove? Why did he/she write the book? This is not the same thing as the subject of the book. For example: a biography of Henry VIII would have as its subject the life, personality, and court of the man who was king from 1509-1547; the thesis of the book (the reason that the book was written–the point of the book) might be that Henry was a good king or a bad king…..because his character was flawed, things he did or didn’t do etc. IN THE THESIS ONE DISCOVERS WHY THE AUTHOR WROTE THE BOOK, WHAT HE/SHE IS TRYING TO PROVE, AND WHAT HIS/HER POINT OF VIEW IS. Some theses will be explicit (clearly spelled out); others will be between the lines or implicit. A book may have a central thesis and several auxiliary ones.
8. Style. This is an opportunity to comment on how well the book is written. Is it well organized? Is it narrative or analytical in approach? Don’t forget to mention these aspects, but don’t get carried away here.
9. Is this work original or just a development of what other scholars have done before? Is it a work which has made other scholars re-evaluate the entire subject under consideration? Is it the best of its kind? Is it the only work of its kind?
10. Give an indication in one or two paragraphs of what other scholars have had to say about the book or what they haven’t said. Be sure to tell where they made their comments and criticisms; and give some examples. Cite your sources. Consult professional book reviews to see what types of criticisms have been directed at the work.
11. Evaluation. Is the book one which you would recommend to others? To me? To others? Which others? Why/why not? State your criteria in recommending (or not) the book. If you think it would be useful for a limited audience or in a limited way say so!
III. Form of the Review
Your paper should be a smooth essay of four to six typewritten pages in length. NO PAPER WILL BE ACCEPTED WHICH EXCEEDS 6 PAGES!!! Professional reviews rarely exceed 750 words! It should be concise and well written. It should incorporate all of the above items (in any order you feel is appropriate — except #1 and #2). You can point out that the author is biased without saying that his/her point of view is without merit. You can criticize the book without saying that it is a poor work. You must demonstrate that you have read and understood the book. You should not use lengthy quotations from the work, but a few well-chosen and brief quotations can often be very useful in conveying the flavor of the book. Construct your review carefully: the grade you save may be your own!!! Be sure that you avoid clichs, mixed metaphors, and triteness. Papers which have an excessive number of spelling and grammatical errors will be returned ungraded for retyping. Remember your assignment is to criticize, not to summarize the book.
IV. Format. (1) A Cover Page which includes the following information:
a. a proper bibliographic citation of your book
(This includes the author, title, publisher, date, page numbers of the book.)
b. the course title and number
c. your name
(2) The first page will have:
a. your name in the upper right hand corner
b. a proper bibliographic citation of the book
c. begin your review on this page, the citation is your title
(3) Endnote page (or footnotes in text) for any citations that will be necessary
(4) A complete bibliography of works consulted for the assignment
Previous Next