Digital History>Writing Guides>Writing a Critical Book Review

Writing a Critical Book Review

A critical book review offers both a description and an evaluation of a book. A history book review locates the book in a historiographical context - the arguments and interpretations of a given topic.

In your book review, you need to answer the following questions

• What historiographical issues does the book address?
• What other books have been written on the same topic? How have they interpreted the subject?
• What is the book’s thesis or point of view?
• What evident is used to support the thesis? How accurate is the evidence? Has relevant or conflicting evidence been omitted?
• How valid is the book’s argument?
• What has the book accomplished?