The Killing Zone by Stephen Rabe

For this assignment, we have been reading The Killing Zone by Stephen Rabe.
Your task is, in 1000 words or fewer, to summarize the thesis, sub-theses, arguments,
and evidence of a work of academic history. Then, you should highlight one or two
things that the author did exceedingly well, and if you thought there was an issue in
their argument (they focused too much on the politics and not the people, they went
from A-C without mentioning B, etc.) you mention that, then you recommend this book
to the audience.
Good book reviews are primarily summary–that is, they are focused on the
book’s author and argument, not on your opinion of it.
A good rule of thumb for these is: roughly 750 words of summary and 250 words of
review/discussing things you liked and did not like.
What you should do
Focus first and foremost on the argument the author makes. Read the conclusion, then
the introduction, then compare them. What points does the author wish you to learn?
How do they structure their argument? Is that structure reflected in the chapters or in a
different structure?
Focus on the structure and outline of the book. Reverse-outline the book (writing an
outline from your own notes and figuring out how the argument is structured).
Historians have a bad tendency to not use chapters perfectly, so don’t rely only on the
chapter titles to form your structure. Besides, a summary that summarizes every
chapter will likely be too long and too in depth for the purposes of this class.
Write with clarity and precision–one thousand words is not a lot and I expect good
work from you. Quote sparingly and make sure the quotes you pick are the most
important quotes for proving the author’s argument or your own interpretation of that
argument.
Thing about the things the author did well–the moments you truly felt you grasped the
argument. Think about the moments that you were forced to re-read or the moments
that didn’t quite fit. Then decide if this book is worth reading, and say so.
What you should NOT do
Do not try and summarize each chapter with a few lines. Do not wait until the last
moment to start the process. Do not write informally. These are a step up in formality
and expectation from the reaction essays. Every word counts. Good grammar counts.
Clarity, breadth and depth count.
Do NOT make this review about you. Do not spend most of your time critiquing or
complaining about the book. Good reviews are mainly a form of summarization with a
short moment for opinion.
Nuts, bolts, and guidelines
All papers will be 1000 words or less of body text (title, name, and footnotes/citations
do not count against you).
Times New Roman or similar, 12 point font, double-spaced. Footnotes are 10 point
font of the same typeface as your body. (I cannot tell you what seeing footnotes in a
different typeface or larger font does to me, but Hades from Disney’s Hercules comes
to mind).
If you quote the author, cite the quote using the Chicago Manual of Style
footnote. You may find a guide to how to do that by googling “Chicago manual of
style.” I don’t want to see mediocre or wrong footnotes. Proper citations take exactly
as long as improper citations