How to Review Scholarly Books - Skills for Scholars by Steven E Gump

About the Book

"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"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Most book reviews would be even more beneficial if their authors were to carefully read Steven Gump's How to Review Scholarly Books. . . . He has read widely about this hidden art and has considered the matter systematically and thoughtfully."---Robert Whaples, The Independent Review

"Gump guides the reader through the peculiar combination of surface and depth, of in and out, that constitutes reading an academic book for review. . . . Gump's book offers not only relief, but the conviction that the book review returns us to the practices, writ small, that in their impact, writ large, led us to the profession in the first place. . . . Academics are, from beginning to end, a reviewing species. . . . The book review is central to what we do--and who we are. It is a relish worthy of savor, a form of communion that is as learned as it is precious."---Douglas Dowland, Inside Higher Ed

"Gump's pleasantly and accessibly written guide, primarily aimed at young scholars aspiring to this honourable and rewarding but underappreciated variety of academic output, is a passionate plea for the genre. . . . His book is also a goldmine of suggestions about practical matters."---Charles Forceville, Leonardo

About the Author

Steven E. Gump is associate director of the Office of Citizen Scholar Development at the University of Virginia. As book review editor for the Journal of Scholarly Publishing since 2024, he solicits, develops, and publishes engaging reviews.