Question
Book Review of Book title: Travelers in the Third Reich Author: Julia Boyd
- Remember, when writing your review, you audience is your classmates and your professors. The following specifics should be applied to your assignment:
- 3-5 pages long
- Provide complete bibliographic information at the front (i.e., author’s name, title, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, pages)
- Put your name at the end of the review
- Follow the “Notes Regarding Book Reviews” found below
- Submit the completed document to Blackboard using the submission link at the bottom of this page
You can view various reviews published in scholarly journals and see how they do it.
Notes on Writing Book Reviews
- First and foremost, a book review is not a summary of the contents of a book. Book reports summarize contents and they belong in high school. A good book review is a commentary on the book. That means that it analyses, evaluates, and judges the contents of the book.
- Things to look for when reading a book for the purpose of reviewing it:
- Find the author’s point of view. This is often clearly stated in the introduction or preface.
- Identify the author’s major hypothesis, point, or contention. There may be more than one or there may be a main one accompanied by several lesser but still important hypotheses. Again, most authors will state their point or hypothesis in the introduction and the conclusion of their book.
- What types of evidence does the author use? Look at the footnotes, endnotes, and bibliography.
- How is the book organized to present its argument? Is the organization effective?
- How does the author use the evidence presented in the book? Is the evidence sufficient, is it convincing, is it appropriate, etc?
- Is the author’s point of view appropriate? Is there a discernible bias, is the author objective? Is the author true to that point of view in the way the book has been written? Always remember to respect how the author wrote the book, as long as it is appropriate. Do not criticize an author from writing a book (or article) differently from how you would have written it. If you feel so strongly about it, write it yourself.
- How does the book fit in to the existing literature? Are there other books on this topic? Is the book revising them, enhancing them, or contradicting them, etc? Or is this book unique?
- Based on the organization, argumentation, and evidence presented, do you find the book contains a convincing argument?
- If possible, compare the book with other books on similar topics.
- Do you recommend this book to others? Why or why not? Comment on readability, whether the book grabbed your interest, was it useful, etc.?
- Supply a brief summary or overview of the book’s hypotheses and contents.
- Assess the nature and the quality of the evidence presented.
- Compare the work with similar titles.
- Comment on the author’s presentation: organization, writing style, illustrations, tables, bibliography, index.
- Conclusion with final assessment and recommendation to readers.
When reviewing a book, there are several other key words that can guide your efforts. Ask yourself, what is the author’s purpose for writing this book? That question encompasses both point of view and hypothesis. Ask yourself, what is the scope of the book? That question deals with what the book is about. What is its subject (person, time period, place, etc.)?It is also important to know something about the author. The keyword for this is authority. What is the author’s authority? Does the author have expertise or a reputation in the subject? Beginning students will know little or nothing about the authors they are reading. That is why it is a good idea to look them up and learn about them. All the people on your reading list are well known and significant historians who are the subjects of entries in biographical reference works.
Beginning students do not know where a book fits into to the historical literature. One way to quickly find out where it fits in is to locate book reviews written by other scholars. How do they evaluate the book and why? Where do they say it fits? Their word is no necessarily gospel. Be sure you find good scholarly reviews not simple library selection reviews, which are too short and lack detail for this purpose.
THIS REVIEW SHOULD BE NO LONGER THAN 5 PAGES!
Book title: Travelers in the Third Reich Author: Julia Boyd
Solution
Boyd, Julia. “Travelers in the Third Reich.” Pegasus Books, New York London, (2018). 1-472.
In “Travelers in the Third Reich,” Historian and biographer Julia Boyd gives a fascinating history of Germany before, during, and after World War II, especially how the Nazis gained attention through the accounts of foreign visitors who had poured into the country. Especially from the US and Britain, foreign visitors were impressed by Germany’s beauty, philosophy, music, technological and industrial growth, welcoming citizens, and the strong cultural literature in German literature. According to these foreigners, when they looked at their stay in Germany before World War II, they genuinely claimed that they never saw the Nazi’s terrible and horrific actions coming. Despite some evidence and rumors about the terrible actions, they were unaware, but many had already been convinced of what to expect before they even entered Germany. However, as Boyd states, some, especially those on short visits, had changed their minds after what they experienced in Germany. Boyd has done thorough research to get the foreigners’ firsthand account of their visits. She uses their stories and in the visitors’ own words to tell what they accidentally witnessed and the German government and its peoples’ transformation that was confusing for them to be aware of their plans. Therefore, through this narrative, Boyd shows that for years, Germany was successfully in its propaganda campaign targeting foreigners to strengthen its control on the eve of World War II.
Moreover, Boyd presents enough evidence to highlight the great confusion among the visitors in Germany and their inability to realize that they were being duped and to show their naivety. At first, she uses firsthand stories from British and American visitors from the end of World War I to the end of World war II …………for help with this assignment contact us via Email Address: consulttutor10@gmail.com