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History

Finding Book Reviews

There are a number of databases and indexes to find reviews of a particular book depending on whether you want scholarly or non-scholarly reviews and on the publication date of the book. 
 
Find book reviews in scholarly journals and magazines. to do this, use Advanced Search and select Document Type: Book Review and search.
 
History of the United States and Canada from pre-historic times to the present.
 
Book Review Digest
SL REF Z1219 .B7 (1905-2005)
 
Book Review Index
REF Z1035 .A1 B6 (1965-2011)
Selects reviews from a much broader range of general periodicals than Book Review Digest, but BRI only cites reviews and does not include review excerpts.SL
 

H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online

Source of online scholar books reviews - reviews often appear here before you see the reviews in scholarly journals.
 
Does not contain a field called book reviews but does include "review articles," which usually review several books in the same subject area.
 
 
Click on the Iter Bibliography and go to Advanced Search. Change "type" field to Review or Review Article
 
JSTOR only has a sampling of history journals but it can be an excellent source of book reviewsTo find themuse Advanced Search and select - NARROW BY: Item Type - Reviews
 
If you wish to limit your search to book reviews, use Advanced search and select Document type: Review
or use term: "book review"
 
 
Periodicals Archive Online
Indexes periodicals from the humanities and social sciences. To search, enter the title of the book in keyword(s) field, and under Search Options limit to "Book Reviews".
 
Like JSTOR, it only indexes a small number of history journals but one can limit your search to book reviews. To do this, use Advanced Search and select Content Type: Reviews
 
One of the primary review journals for American history is Reviews in American History. The full text for this journal from 1973-2010 and the more current issues are available through Project Muse..
 
To find book reviews, enter your title in the search box, e.g. ti=(lotus and the lion). Click on Add Row. Click on All Fields and choose Document Type from the dropdown menu. Type Book Review in the search box.
 
Also look at the Book Reviews subject guide.