This is a critical review essay, not a book report. A book report is a mere summary of the contents of the book. A critical review essay is far more analytical as it requires you to report on the contents of a book and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. When evaluating a text, you should consider whether or not the author successfully proved his/her thesis. Do you find the author’s arguments convincing? Are there obvious flaws or errors in the author’s thinking? Did the author provide sufficient evidence? Did the book have any glaring omissions? Your personal emotional reaction—whether you found the book boring, exciting, or otherwise—is irrelevant.
The word critical does not necessarily equate to a negative review. If you believe the author made intelligent arguments and supported these claims with solid evidence, then writing a positive review is appropriate. Please avoid using the first person as readers will already know the review reflect your interpretation.
Professional historians often publish critical reviews of recent scholarship. You can easily succeed at this assignment if you read the book carefully and put thought into your evaluation. If you write clearly and support your argument, you can earn a high grade regardless of your interpretation of the book.
Critical Review Essay Guidelines: Your review essay must contain the following components:
Start your essay by introducing the overall subject of the book and identifying the primary argument(s) of the text. You should also give a sense of your overall evaluation of the book. You will elaborate on this in greater detail near the end of your review, but even a brief statement will help to set the tone for the rest of the review. You should write the introduction in a way that would enable someone who has not read the book to come away with a good understanding of what it is about and what it argues. Even if the thesis is unclear to you, do your best to describe what you understand as the thesis. You may also use this section to include background information on the author. Note: You do not have to limit this section to one paragraph. You may, for example, introduce the topic in your first paragraph and then identify the author’s thesis and major points in the second paragraph.
The most important part of the review will involve your analysis and evaluation of the text. You should organize this part of your review essay into paragraphs that focus on a single aspect of your argument. You do not have to review the book chapter by chapter as organizing your evaluation thematically might make more sense for your essay. Simply writing “This book is great” or “This book is poorly argued” is not sufficient. Strong essays will be those that provide concrete examples of the strengths and/or weaknesses of a text. Feel free to discuss individual chapters in detail if they are relevant to your overall interpretation of the book. Though you should work to provide a balanced analysis of the book, you are certainly welcome to view the book as generally positive or negative.
Finally, include a conclusion that provides your final judgment on the book, whether positive, negative, or mixed. You might also include some thoughts about whether the book would be best suited for academics and/or the general public. Though you should not introduce new material about the book itself here, you may certainly link the book to larger debates or ideas within history or consider ways in which future scholars could build upon the research in this book
Formatting and Guidelines for the Critical Review Essay
I will enforce the following page margins/font/page number requirements STRICTLY. Make sure your computer margins are all set at 1”. You MUST use Times New Roman 12-point font, and the paper MUST be page numbered. The page numbers must be consecutive, and they must appear in the top right corner or the bottom center of your page. Include your name in the numbering system (i.e.: Jones 2, Jones 3, etc.). The first page does not require a page #.
Quotations: If you quote from the book under review, include a footnote. I want to give you all additional practice using them before you write your research essays. Verbatim quotes are a useful as long as you utilize them to make a point (and not because “you could not have said it better”). However, it is best to limit your usage of quotes in critical review essays. If you do use them, include them in your own sentences and try to limit them to phrases from the book. DO NOT USE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK AS STANDALONE SENTENCES (a sentence that is only a quote from the book).
the guidelines state that the paper should be 2.5-3-pages long. Any papers under two-and-a-half pages will lose points proportional to the shortage of the assignment.
Book: Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? Updated and Expanded on JSTOR (csusm.edu)
