Explain the book’s argument, discuss the author’s method , and critique the book’s argument–how convincing? Other explanations that the author didn’t consider?

Book Review: If you wrote “book reports” in your younger days, this is a good place to begin defining a book review. In a book report, you typically wrote about a novel: you summarized the plot and then explained whether you liked the book or not, and why. You responded to the book as a consumer. In a book review, you understand that none of our books are novels, and you respond to them as a scholar. There is an element of summary. What is the book’s subject? What is its scope–limited by era, by topic, or some other factor? Yet summary is the least important part of the review.

In a book review, you must explain the book’s argument, discuss the author’s method , and critique the book’s argument–how convincing? Other explanations that the author didn’t consider? Other sources the author might have used? How useful for historians, students of history, or history buffs? There is a set format for writing book reviews. Begin with the book’s bibliographic information
at the top of the first page Put it exactly into this format:

Author First Last Name. Complete Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, year of
publication. Pp. number of pages. $price of book.
Example: Abraham Early. The Mughal World: India’s Tainted Paradise. London: Orion Books,
2007. Pp. xxiv, 420. $19.99.