Book Reviews

Collection of library-owned multidisciplinary print and online sources for scholarly*, critical, and general interest book reviews in all disciplines, from the 19th century to present - in scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers.

Some online resources provide full-text book reviews; some provide full-text reviews and citations to reviews; some provide only citations to reviews. A citation provides the information needed to locate the book review.  Note:    If unable to locate a book review using the resources in this guide, please ask for assistance at the Reference Desk, or use the Ask-a-Librarian service.

Scholarly reviews are written for scholars by scholars. These reviews place the book within the scholarly discourse, compare the book to other works in the field, and analyze the author's methodology, interpretations, and conclusions. Due to this amount of engagement with the book, reviews of academic titles may appear two or three years after publication of the book. Scholarly reviews will be published in journals and tend to be longer.  Books are selectively chosen to be reviewed in scholarly journals.
Language adapted, with permission, from the Book Review Guide, Williams College Library (library.williams.edu).

• Not every book gets reviewed.
• Subject-specific article databases (e.g., Historical Abstracts) often include citations to or full-text book reviews. Use both the Subject  and Info Types  [article databases] limits in the Research Databases list to find these article databases.
• In print book review sources, reviews do not always appear in the year of publication. Consult the index volume for the publication year but also volumes for a few years following the publication date.

It is useful when looking for book reviews to know the:

Book author's full name
Book's complete title
Publication year of the book

To find this information, check one of the following: