How to Write a Critical Book Review

Unlike a summary, which merely condenses the content of a chapter or short book, a critical book review offers an evaluation or analysis of the book’s contents. You have the opportunity to offer your responses and opinions on what the author did well and not so well, in your judgment.

Critical book reviews are often assigned in upper-level courses in history, geography, and politics, and in other disciplines as well. The premise behind the book review in senior courses is that after a couple of years of study in a discipline, you have enough understanding of key issues and approaches to problems in your subject area that you are able to assess the merits of published research in your field. Nonetheless, most student writers find this a daunting task. Faced with writing a review of a book by a leading historian or political analyst, you may feel inadequately informed or qualified to comment with any conviction or authority.

One of the learning objectives of the critical book review is for you to discover that indeed you have the background knowledge and critical thinking skills to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a historical study or work of political or sociological analysis. You have likely read other books and articles on the same subject. You know how scholars in your field of study use evidence to support their claims and arguments. You are aware of some of the paradigms and premises out of which research is conducted. You know what good writing is in your discipline. This suite of understandings forms the critical element in your response.

Critical in the generic term critical book review does not mean that somewhere in your piece you have to say something uncomplimentary or negative about a book. You may be reviewing a book you think is first-rate in all respects. Critical here means that you have a response to what you have read, that you explain why the book is a brilliant addition to research on a given subject or why you think it has some shortcomings or biases that readers should be aware of. Writing a critical book review is an important scholarly activity, a service to others in your discipline or field of interest who want to keep abreast of current research and thinking. Your review of a recent book on the use of Special Forces in counter-terrorism activities, for example, may tell your reader whether the author says anything new about the expanding role these forces play in this form of conflict.

There is no template or universal formula to apply to writing a good, short critical book review. But there are some standard forms and features that are found to greater and lesser extent in book reviews, whether they appear in a scholarly journal or a literary supplement to a newspaper. What follows is a good format for organizing the essential parts of a critical book review:

A Catchy Lead: Like any piece of writing, a book review has to interest the reader, convince him or her to continue reading. In journalism, the term lead (rhymes with deed) denotes the opening sentences or paragraphs of an article. As William Zinsser remarks in his classic On Writing Well, “The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it does not induce your reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead.” Zinsser’s comment applies as much to a book review as it does to a feature article. The lead paragraph should draw the reader into the rest of the review.

General Statement of Main Argument or Subject of the Book: At the end of the lead paragraph or in the second paragraph, provide a brief summary or description of what the book is about.

Provide 2-3 Specific Examples: Select a couple of key ideas or arguments from the book and briefly summarize them, if necessary noting the supporting evidence the author uses. You don’t want to give away too much of the book’s substance. Your purpose is to prime the reader’s interest to find out more. You might at this point comment on particular strengths and weaknesses in the book. Tell the reader what you liked about the book, what you found most interesting. You might also compare the book with other books or articles you have read on the same subject, and judge its contribution to a body of knowledge or a matter of scholarly debate.

A Compelling Conclusion and Overall Judgement: The last paragraph of your review should be brief, with some snappy summative comments on the particular value or importance of the book. Here you give a sense of what the book has to offer the general or specialist reader and how it contributes to a given field of knowledge. You might also end by commenting broadly on the larger human, historical, scientific, economic, environmental, or other issues that surround the subject the book addresses.

Here are some other issues and questions you might want to address in your review, depending on the kind of book you are reviewing, your knowledge of the subject, and your confidence as a reviewer:

Background: Does the book contribute to an ongoing scholarly debate that the reader should be informed of? Have you background knowledge of the book’s subject that helps to put it in a particular context for the reader?

Scope: How thoroughly is the book’s subject treated or its argument developed? Do you wish there were more of something and less of something else? If so, explain why, and thereby offer critical commentary on the book.

Style and Organization: How well written is the book? Is it easy to read, or does the author have a turgid or dry or overly colloquial style of writing? Is there a logical organization to the book’s contents, or is information confusingly presented and patchy? As a book reviewer you serve the reader well by commenting on matters of form and language. Not all published material has been well edited or even well conceived.

Objectivity: Does the writer have any evident biases or premises that bear on the content of the book? Are there marked theoretical or ideological assumptions that determine what and how evidence is presented? If the writer does have a strong point of view, is evidence presented fairly so that the reader can come to his or her own judgement?

Sources and Documentation: Some scholars do not provide full sources for their information. Other writers overload a text with footnotes and endnotes that can sometimes carry on a discussion separate from that in the body of the book. Either tactic can be frustrating for the general reader and the specialist alike. How and whether the author uses other sources is worth commenting on, as well as what sources are used. From the bibliography or list of references at the back of a book, you can discover the extent to which the writer has used primary or secondary sources. This may be a matter of considerable importance to your critical evaluation of the book.

Example of a critical book review