The final part of your tasks includes writing a scholarly book review of an academic history book. This will form 20 percent of your grade. The book review
needs to do the following:
Tell what the book is about. Do not simply summarize the story, but give the topic, geographic area, and timespan that the book covers. This should take only
one mid-length paragraph.
Give the book’s key argument/point.
Discuss the book’s sources and methodology: what kind of evidence and methods the author uses to make his/her point.
Analyze if the argument hold water. Is the point well-made and supported with solid evidence and reasoning? Why or why not?
Your take. What did you think about the book? Did it interest or entertain you? Was it well written and clearly organized? This is the only openly subjective part
of your review.
Write your work in fluent, beautiful essay form, not as a numbered list! The desired length is 2-4 double-spaced pages, with normal fonts and margins. Below,
please find a list of the books suitable for our review. Some of these are in Clayton State library, but the rest you can get either via interlibrary loan (GIL) or,
alternatively, by purchase. Internet is full of cheap used copies of many of these books.
Also, you can choose your own book, as long as it is a real history monograph, covering a specific topic in American history since 1877. The book has to be
written by a professional historian and published by an academic press. If you find a book not in this list that you want to review, you have to get an okay from
me. Email me the author’s name and title of the book, and I will tell you if it is suitable or not.
Sample Solution