Sunday 25 September 2011

Critical Book Review Book Report The American Revolution by Wood, Gordon

Critical Book Review: The American Revolution Book Review: The book review is a critical analysis of a historical study. This will be the time for you to practice your skills on how to make a critical examination of another historians’ piece of work. By the end of the course, you will be required to submit a book review over The American Revolution by Gordon Wood. First thing to recognize when writing a book review is that you are not writing a book report. A book review is a critical analysis of the book -- NOT a report of the book’s contents. Summarizing chapter by chapter is not a review. This does little to help in telling another historian whether this book was worth reading. What historians want to know is whether this book has contributed something significant to the study of history. A good book review will have a: 1. An introduction (about a paragraph telling what this essay is about). 2. A quick summary of the book (really no more than 2 pages). 3. A critical analysis of it (about a page discussing the sources the author used, maybe comparing it to other books or interpretations, writing style, information brought out, whether the book contributed to historical knowledge, etc.). 4. Summary of the review. Required Book for Review: Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution: A History (Modern Library, 2002). ISBN: 978-0-8129-7041-8