A guide to the art of reviewing scholarly books, with strategies and suggestions
Scholarly book reviews should be enjoyable—both to write and to read. All too often, though, they offer little more than chapter-by-chapter summaries. In this comprehensive handbook, Steven Gump offers an encouraging guide to crafting valuable reviews of scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences. Readers learn how to write engaging, respectful reviews that make intellectual contributions of their own. With extensive experience in both writing and editing scholarly book reviews, Gump walks prospective reviewers through the process of selecting a book to review, identifying a venue to publish the review, reading and annotating the book, and writing a review that is tailored to the audience of the target venue, with the possibility of dissemination to popular outlets beyond the core field.
Alongside this practical advice, Gump offers a generous philosophy of scholarly book reviewing that considers the roles of book reviews and the responsibilities of book reviewers within the broader scholarly ecosystem. Readers learn how to uplift the voices and contributions of authors, how to prepare the next generation of reviewers (including undergraduates or graduate students), and how to elevate an unjustly underestimated genre. Ultimately, this essential guide brings into renewed focus the joys of reading scholarly works, engaging with intellectual ideas, and writing incisively.

- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Information
Print ISBN
9780691270494
9780691270487
Subtopic
Teaching Arts & HumanitiesTable of contents
- Cover
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Prelude: Previewing Reviewing
- 1. Getting Started as a Scholarly Book Reviewer
- Interlude 1: Thinking Like a Reviewer
- 2. Reading for Reviewing
- Interlude 2: Finding Your Way In
- 3. Writing a Scholarly Book Review
- Interlude 3: Celebrating Completion
- 4. Considering Special Cases
- Interlude 4: Transferring Your Skills
- 5. Improving the Craft and Context of Reviewing
- Postlude: Teaching Scholarly Reviewing
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix: Questions for Scholarly Reviewers
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
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Yes, you can access How to Review Scholarly Books by Steven E. Gump in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.