ECON 2456 Critical Book Review Project
Updated: 2012-03-17

Critical book reviews are due in class on April 5, 2012. (If you are unable to submit hard copy, then you may submit your review in PDF format via email.) If you aren't reviewing one of the books below, then you should already have emailed me to get approval for the book you would like to review. Plan to bring a rough draft of your review to class on March 29th.

General Guidelines

Your review should be as long as it needs to be, but no longer. For those who need a hard limit, your review should be no longer than 2500 words. (A reasonable minimum is 1000 words, but brevity is rarely a problem in student writing.) Make your first draft as long as it takes to write down everything you want to say; if it doesn't get shorter as you revise, you're probably doing something wrong.

Please use at least 11 point font. Either leave wide margins (the standard LaTeX article class is perfect) or double-space your lines.

I don't care what citation format you use, but pick one and stick to it. (Chicago is a safe choice.) I do care very much that you cite your sources.

If you've never written a critical book review, this handout from UNC is a good starting point. This recent review of Blue-Collar Blues is a good example, though I would like you evaluate your books in a bit more depth and with more reference to outside sources.

Suggested Books for Critical Review

Books that are strongly emphasized are ones I recommend highly. This doesn't mean that the other books aren't equally good, but I haven't read all of them cover-to-cover. Some of these books (the ones with "(eds.)") are edited collections of papers, which could be used in writing a more traditional research paper if you prefer to do so.

Measurement

Growth

Global Poverty (Development)

US (Western) Poverty

Inequality

Human Capital

Human Rights


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