Book Response

Book : The Souls of Black Folks 

Book reviews should do more than inform the reader as to what the book is about. Truly effective book reviews provide a critical analysis of the author’s core argument and the ideological structure of the book. In the reviews that you will write for this class, you must provide a clear and well-written analysis of the two books presented. Each review should clearly define the author’s argument, discuss strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide commentary on the overall presentation and effectiveness of the work. I do not simply want  7 you to regurgitate what the author has written nor do I want you to merely summarize the books; each review should showcase your ability to critically analyze historical arguments, identify suppositions and dissect points of view. Both reviews should also discuss the relevancy of the arguments and solutions the authors present for the problems of their time to those same problems today or whether you believe the issues discussed continue to be problematic. Plagiarism and Citation: In this course, you are required to cite sources for any material quoted or paraphrased in any written work or assignment. Please use the citation style relevant to your academic major. Those using footnotes, please use the Chicago style manual for citations.

You present some good information here. Your review would have benefited from a deeper discussion of some of the points you make and a stronger discussion of Woodson’s overall argument and the reasons why he felt as he did regarding the “mis-education” of Black people. What was the miseducation and the harm it caused to the Black community. Also, closer attention to sentence and paragraph formation would have helped streamline your discussion as would careful attention to word choice. Always add page numbers after the cover page. You do present some critique of the work that was enjoyable to read, however, I would have liked a stronger discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of this work as well as how you see it as relevant today; you mention its relevance in the beginning and some at the end, but do not follow up with details as to how.  Again, you provide some good information, but needed to delve a little deeper into your analysis and provide examples to support your position. Also, stronger discussion of your argument and analysis of Woodson in clear and concise sentences would have strengthened your overall review. The grade for this review is 35/50