02 May WHAT SORTS OF EVIDENCE DOES THE AUTHOR PROVIDE TO SUPPORT THIS ARGUMENT?
You are required to write scholarly reviews of one piece of scholarship published in the Journal of American History (or, depending on the course you are in, from other peer-reviewed, professional historical journals) and one book-length work of historical scholarship (either a classic or more recent work) on a topic within the temporal and topical parameters of the course. The Course Schedule section of the syllabus contains a selection of journal articles and monographs from which to choose. These papers are designed both to get you to think critically about historical scholarship and to help you learn to express those critical thoughts in writing.
A review (either of an article or a book) does more than simply explain what the work is about and offer an opinion on the pleasure or knowledge the work offers the reader. A good review assesses the argument (overall point), methodology (the nuts and bolts of how the argument was constructed and developed), evidence (primary and secondary records used to build the argument), and contribution the work offers to our understanding of the topic under study. A review informs readers of how the book advances historical knowledge of its particular subject. Readers of reviews have a pre-existing base of knowledge on the basic details of U.S. History; their interest in reviews, therefore, lay in uncovering new and fresh perspectives and interpretations of the basic stories many of us already know.
Reviews tend to follow a particular format. Check the book reviews in important historical journals like the American Historical Review and Journal of American History for examples. Longer reviews offer historians an opportunity to write more interesting and intelligent reviews; you can find them in Reviews in American History.
When you write your review, you should seek to provide information essential for any competent review (see below), but you should also write your review in a fashion that makes the reader remember it. Like any other writing, the best reviews are those that demonstrate that the author thought carefully about organization, style, and argument, and structured the essay around some central principle.
The following are suggestions for writing an excellent review:
Make sure you answer the following four questions:
1. What is the work about? Remember, the readers of reviews typically have not read the work under review, so it is the writers job to acquaint the reader, as much as possible, with the topics and themes explored in the essay or book.
2. What argument does the author make, and how does he or she make it? What sorts of evidence does the author provide to support this argument? Does the author employ a particular theoretical (Marxist, postmodern, Whig, etc.) or methodological (privileging of a particular type of sources, linear narrative, etc.) approach in constructing her/his argument(s)?
3. Is the argument convincing? Why? (Include here an evaluation of the evidence provided and the theoretical / methodological approach adopted. You will have to scour the footnotes and bibliography.)
4. What is the works contribution to our understanding of the past, and how does that contribution add to, challenge, confirm, or refocus other interpretations of the same subject?
Answering those four questions tends to give reviews a certain format. Your first paragraph, of course, should be an introduction that lets the reader know your papers topic and draws the reader into the essay. Your introductory paragraph should also contain a thesis that is essentially a short summary of your critical evaluation of the work you are reviewing. Like any other piece of good writing, your review needs to have a point, and you need to structure your essay around supporting this point.
After the introduction, you should then write a section that summarizes the topic and argument of the work. Here you should explain not only what the author argues, but how that argument is made. Describe the sources that provide evidence for the argument, and discuss any particular theoretical or methodological approaches the work takes.
Next, evaluate the argument, explaining both how the author adds to our understanding of this particular topic or time period in history and how convincing the authors argument is. This section answers questions 3 and 4 about the essay, requiring you to express your informed, intellectual opinion about the work. You need, of course, to use the text to support that opinion. Pay particular attention to how well the evidence the author uses supports the works argument. Does she/he interpret the sources appropriately? Are there other sources that might disprove or significantly challenge the argument? Does the authors theoretical or methodological approach to the crafting of historical knowledge add anything to the overall argument? This is the section where you are supposed to shine as a critic; you dont have to be universally negative or positive. You have to instead provide a subtle evaluation of both the strengths and weaknesses of the argument. In this evaluation, you should also explain how the book serves as a contribution to the broader field of U.S. history. Does it provide information previously unexplored topics? Does it force historians to reexamine their assumptions about topics that they thought had already been explained adequately? Does the work provide new methods and perspectives that subsequent scholars will have to take into account? Or, does the work offer nothing new, simply rehashing older arguments?
The last section of your essay should be a conclusion. Dont merely summarize what youve already written or repeat points youve already made. Rather, offer the reader some final points to consider, both about the work youve reviewed and how that work enhances (or diminishes) our understanding and knowledge of U.S. history.
B. Requirements
1. Journal Article Review: Choose one of the journal articles listed in the Course Schedule. Retrieve that article from the Readings section of Blackboard. Read the article carefully, take good notes, and write a 4-5 page review of the article using the instructions detailed above. Due date for this assignment is Sunday during Week 5 before 11:59 p.m.
2. Monograph review: Choose one of the Suggested Monographs contained in the Course Schedule, and follow the same set of instructions contained for the Journal Article Review. The monograph review should be 6-7 pages in length, and will be due on Sunday during Week 10 before 11:59 p.m.
C. Writing Checklist
Prior to submission of your essays, please make sure you have adhered to the requirements contained on this list.
A. S
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