Book Critique  (think 3 pages)

a.  A book critique is not a book report--that is, it does not just summarize what is in the book.  It analyzes the book in a careful, methodical fashion.  Because it is a scholarly paper, it should not be in the first person.

b.  Explain what the title means--it may have more than one meaning.  e.g., Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi is about her growing to adulthood in segregated Mississippi, but the title is taken from Margaret Mead's book, Coming of Age in Samoa, and implies that Mississippi was a foreign land, foreign to the core American values of equality and justice.

c.  Explain the main idea of the book--the message the book is trying to give you.  e.g., Gerda Lerner, ed., Black Women in White America --The main theme is to explore being African-American in the U.S. through the words of African-American women.

d.  Explain any sub-themes (contributing ideas) in the book. e.g., in Black Women in White America the chapters are set up to reflect the various sub-themes--slavery, resistance, struggle for education, the historic vulnerability to insult and attack, making a living, prejudice, Black women's organizations, race pride, and womanhood.

e.  Examine the sources--what are they?  Were any sources or any types of sources that might have been useful left out?  Are these sources new and innovative in some way?  Are the sources legitimate?

f.  Examine the methodology--what techniques are used?  e.g., narrative storytelling, a single biography, multiple biographies, use of people's actual words, a chronological approach, non-chronological, topical

g.  What are the strengths and weaknesses and/or limits of this book?
                  Is it just about one group?  Set in a certain time period?  Does it try to do too much?  Is it too narrow a topic?  Is it organized well or poorly?  Does it do what the author says it is going to do?  Would you recommend it to others?  Why or why not?

Format

The first page should begin with your FOUR-DIGIT NUMBER, not your name at the left top on the first line, the class name on the next line, the date on the next line--single-spaced:

4400
Hist 4851 (or 6851):  History of Women in America
November 2, 2009

Skip two lines and do the book information in single-space in Bibliography form (See Writing Guidelines).  Remember to indent all lines after the first, but not the first:

Purdue, Theda.  Cherokee Women.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 2004.

Come down two single-spaced lines, change the paragraph format to double-space in the menu, and use double-space until the end.

If you use a quote from the book, just put the page number in parenthesis at the end of the quote or sentence.  e.g.,  "My sister is my right arm," said one Cherokee chief, reflecting the book's theme of the importance of women within the tribe. (p. 34)