Martin, L., and Jacobs C. trans. Three Treatises
- An essential feature of these book reviews is your critical evaluation of the book in a succinct and concise essay. The point of a scholarly book review is not to merely summarize the content of the book, but instead, to situate the historical merit of the book and to evaluate critically the author’s purpose, thesis, contentions, and methods of analysis. Therefore, the bulk of the essay body will be an evaluation of how convincing the author’s presentation of their thesis was and a commentary of your understanding of how the book influences your conception of historical events during the Reformation. To put it another way, the review explains the historical context of the book, analyzes the text for validity and summarizes its content for reference.
The book review is over: Martin, L., and Jacobs C. trans. Three Treatises, 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1970.
Consider that the book in question to review is a collections of essays. Make a clear point to consider is why are these essays in the same volume? Additionally, you’ll want to consider if the collection of essays are appropriately ordered and included in the work. If you feel they are not, then you will have to make the case for why that is in an apparent and direct form of analysis. If you feel they are, then provide plenty of examples when you emphasize this in your analysis.
Other features you should want to include in a strong review are:
• A discussion of each essay’s main contentions.
• An assessment of the strong points or shortcomings of the book.
• How does this book change the way one should think about the subject (or perhaps about pre-concieved notions about the Reformation)?
• Were you persuaded by the arguments? If so, what were its strongest essays, and, if not, where are its weaknesses?
• What sources and references are made to other authors? If applicable, is there an appropriate amount of citations, footnotes, and/or sources?
Finally, you should make references to specific portions of the book to illustrate your evaluation. The challenge will be to do as much of this as possible and yet to not let it interfere with the restricted length of the essay. In other words, find creative ways to give examples from the book in small quantities. Obviously, quotations must be kept to a minimum and should rarely exceed 1 sentence.
