HISA09 Will Riddell

Book Review Assignment

By now, hopefully you have decided on one of the four books in the syllabus for your book review.

You now need to move ahead, choose a book for review. Next, read the book carefully, taking notes on its
main arguments, methodology, and use of sources. Most importantly, think about the way in which the book
speaks to themes raised in our course. Then, look at the book review worksheet (posted on QUERCUS) and
fill it out, using it as a tool to refine your thinking and clarify your thoughts. The worksheet also should help
you produce a well-structured book review.

Your assignment is to write a three to five page (double-spaced) review of the book. The review should

 Summarize the book’s thesis (argument)

 Comment on the way the author engages with the historiography on the topic at hand – that is, the
way s/he discusses debates and controversies in the field
 Critically assess the volume’s findings
 Explore the ways that the author touches on the concepts and themes that we have explored in
HISA09 this term. Where possible you should refer to specific assigned course readings and lectures.

Two sample book reviews that can be used to model your assignment upon can be found using JSTOR:

Rick Halpern review of Desegregating the Dollar: African-American Consumerism in the Twentieth
Century by Robert E. Weems, Jr. in The Economic History Review 52:2 (May 1999), pp. 395-396.
http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/2599976

Frederick Knight review of Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers and Their
Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality by Rick Halpern, Roger Horowitz in The Oral History
Review 28:1 (Winter-Spring, 2001), pp. 133-135.
http://www.jstor.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/stable/3675718.

This assignment is due on Saturday, 25 July at 5:00pm. You MUST submit BOTH the worksheet and
the review, and you need to do this digitally in a single document (ideally in WORD format) on
QUERCUS. As with the midterm, please title the document with your name (for example,
“RiddellBookRev.doc”)

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