Write an analytical book review which will critically examine an important scholarly book covering some aspect of United States History before 1877.

Write an analytical book review which will critically examine an important scholarly book covering some aspect of United States History before 1877. The purpose of the review is twofold: first, to acquaint the student with a classic volume of historical scholarship and second to allow the student to think critically about an important facet of American history and to express those thoughts in clear, cogent, and organized prose. You should not view this as a hurdle, which you must overcome, but rather approach it as an opportunity to expand your creativity in thinking and writing like a historian. Because this is a very important aspect of the course your reviews will be graded very carefully. Each book review will be at least 1500 words in length, typed and double-spaced. There is no one way to format a book review but here is a common format that can be varied according to what you think needs to be highlighted.. Introduce the author, the historical period and topic of the book. Tell the reader what genre of history this work belongs to or what approach the author has used. Set out the author’s thesis or main argument. Summarize the book’s organization and give a little more detail about the author’s sub-arguments. Here you would also work in your assessment of the evidence and sources used. Strengths and weaknesses or flaws in the book are usually discussed next. It is up to you to decide in what order these should come, but if you assess the book positively overall, do not spend inordinate space on the book’s faults and vice versa. In the conclusion, you may state your recommendations for readership unless that has been covered in your discussion of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. You might review how convincing the argument was, say something about the importance or uniqueness of the argument and topic, or describe how the author adds to our understanding of a particular historical question. . The analytical book review is due on Nov. 24. The following books may be read for the analytical book review. The book you choose must come from the Book List without exception. Once a book is chosen it will not be availabdfple for anyone else to choose.