An ideal book review written for this module should be around 1000 words long and:

 

• start with full bibliographic details of the book discussed;
• summarise the structure, method and main points of the work;
• discuss how the author's arguments fit into other writing on the subject;
• comment on the range of sources used and how they contribute to the argument;
• explain the strengths and weaknesses of the book from your point of view;
• assess whether / how the work will advance relevant debates
• acknowledge sources of information in footnotes and a bibliography.

 

It may be helpful to look at how other people have reviewed relevant books in scholarly journals:

• Examples of online reviews e.g. in English Historical Review; German History; History; Journal of Early Modern History, Reviews in History (see e.g. Jennifer Bishop's on Hailwood, Alehouses).
• For a database of many different historical journals see JStor.
• Some scholarly fora also give access to reviews and other relevant materials (see e.g. H-Albion; H-France; H-German).
• Hardcopies of these journals and many others (Historische Zeitschrift, Sixteenth Century Journal etc) are held in the UL.
• For practical advice see the guide to reviewers issued by the Humanities and Social Sciences internet platform H-Net (esp. passages on 'effectiveness', 'content', 'evaluation', 'professionalism')

 

The following is not a definitive list but merely suggestive of books you might like to review. If you have other ideas please discuss them with the module tutor:

 

Bennett, Judith, Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World (Oxford, 1996)

Brennan, Thomas, Public Drinking and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Princeton, 1988)

Clark, Peter, The English Alehouse: A Social History (London, 1983)

Earnshaw, Steven, The Pub in Literature: England's Altered State (Manchester, 2000)

Hailwood, Mark, Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England (Woodbridge, 2014)

Martin, Lynn A., Alcohol, Sex and Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Basingstoke, 2001)

" , Alcohol, Violence and Disorder in Traditional Europe (Kirksville, 2008)

Tlusty, B. Ann, Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany (Charlottesville, 2001)