Guidelines for the Book Review
A book review, as distinct from a book report, aims at not just summarizing material, but at critically
analyzing it. This means that one of your primary goals will be to identify and explain the primary theses
and arguments made by your chosen author. You will want to spend about half of the review doing this.
The other half of the review should consist of critical analysis and evaluation of the author’s ideas,
arguments and methods.
Requirements
In order to meet the requirements of the review, you will need to at least do the following:
 Identify the author’s guiding problem. What is motivating the author to write the book in the first
place? What is the author’s purpose? Some books have more than one guiding problem. If this is
the case for the work you have chosen, identify all of them, but then focus your critical analysis on
one.
 Identify the position the author takes on that guiding problem. What is the main thesis s/he wants
us to adopt?
 Identify the evidence and/or arguments offered by the author in support of his/her thesis.
 State whether you agree or disagree with the author’s thesis. Be sure to state what you really
think. If you agree with some parts of the author’s thesis, but not others, or if you are left unsure
as to whether you agree, this is what you should claim.
 State whether and to what degree you found the author’s work to be valuable. Note that this is not
the same as agreeing or disagreeing with the work. This is a judgment about the intellectual
contribution made by the work.
 Assess the quality of the author’s work. See below for the kinds of relevant questions you can use
to evaluate the work.
Questions for Assessment
 Is the author’s guiding problem a significant one? Is there a clear purpose to the book?
 Are the author’s guiding problem(s) and thesis (or theses) clearly stated? Has s/he adequately
explained any key concepts used in the text?
 What, if anything, is original about the author’s work.
 Is the author’s evidence sufficient to make his/her case? Is his/her line of reasoning convincing?
 Has the author fairly addressed opposing viewpoints and arguments?
 Has the author ignored important contrary evidence or arguments?
 What are the author’s assumptions? Does the author acknowledge them? Do his/her assumptions
(stated or unstated) bias his/her case?
 What are some potential implications of the author’s view? Does s/he acknowledge them?
 Is the author’s writing sufficiently clear that his/her claims, arguments and evidence are
understandable?
 If applicable, how does the author’s book compare to the work of others?
 What’s next? What are some further considerations that you would suggest the author address?
Pre-Approved Books for Review
Abe Kobo. The Box Man. (Fic.)
Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. (Fic.)
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. (Fic.)
Akutagawa Ryunosuke. “In a Grove”—in Rashomon. (Fic.)
Allen, Diogenes. Christian Belief in a Postmodern World.
Alston, William P. Perceiving God.
Altizer, Thomas J. J. The Gospel of Christian Atheism.
Appiah, Anthony & Amy Gutmann. Color Conscious.
Aristophanes. Lysistrata. (Fic.)
Ayer, A. J. Language, Truth and Logic.
Baker, Tom. The Medical Malpractice Myth.
Baudrillard, Jean. The Spirit of Terrorism.
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Ethics of Ambiguity.
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex.*
Beccaria, Cesar. On Crimes and Punishments.
Becker, Ernest. Denial of Death.
Bentham, Jeremy. The Influence of Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind.
Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy.
Berger, Peter L. The Social Construction of Reality.
Bernstein, Richard J. The Abuse of Evil.
Blackburn, Simon. Lust.
Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism without Racists.
The Book of Job.
Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight.
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw.
Boxill, Bernard. Blacks and Social Justice.
Boyd, Gregory A. God of the Possible.
Boyd, Gregory A. Is God to Blame?
Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Nation.
Boyd, Gregory A. Repenting of Religion.
Brake, Elizabeth. Minimizing Marriage.
Brown, Wendy. Undoing the Demos.*
Brownmiller, Susan. Femininity.
Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble.*
Calhoun, Cheshire. Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet.
Califia, Pat. Sex Changes.*
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus.*
Camus, Albert. Neither Victims Nor Executioners.
Camus, Albert. “Reflections on the Guillotine”-in Resistance, Rebellion and Death
Card, Claudia. The Unnatural Lottery.
Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism.
Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind.*
Chandogya Upanishad.
Chomsky, Noam. Hegemony or Survival?
Chomsky, Noam. Power and Ideology.
Chomsky, Noam. Profit over People.
Clouser, Roy A. Knowing with the Heart.
Code, Lorraine. What Can She Know?
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought.
Collins, Randall. Sociology of Philosophies.
Cupitt, Don. After God.
Daly, Mary. Beyond God the Father.
Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology.*
Damasio, Antonio. Descartes’ Error.
Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker.
Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion.
Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle.
DeGraaf, John, et al. Affluenza.
DeLillo, Don. White Noise. (Fic.)
Deloria, Vine. God is Red.
Dennett, Daniel C. Elbow Room.
Dennett, Daniel C. Freedom Evolves.
Dewey, John. A Common Faith.
Dewey, John. Democracy and Education.
Dewey, John. Experience and Education.
Doris, John. Lack of Character.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov.* (Fic.)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment.* (Fic.)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. (Fic.)
Drange, Theodore M. Evil and Nonbelief.*
Dummett, Michael. On Immigration and Refugees.
Dussel, Enrique. The Invention of the Americas.
Dussel, Enrique. Philosophy of Liberation.
Dussel, Enrique. The Underside of Modernity.
Dyson, Michael Eric. Is Bill Cosby Right? (Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?)
Dyson, Michael Eric. Pride.
Dyson, Michael Eric. Race Rules.
Eagleton, Terry. Why Marx Was Right.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.* (Fic.)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance.
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.*
Eze, Emmanuel Chukwudi. Achieving Our Humanity.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks.*
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth.*
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Myths of Gender.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body.*
Feuerbach, Ludwig. The Essence of Christianity.*
Feuerbach, Ludwig. The Essence of Religion.
Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method.*
Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish.
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization.
French, Marilyn. The War Against Women.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents.
Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion.
Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom.
Friere, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Fromm, Erich. Escape From Freedom.
Fromm, Erich. The Sane Society.
Frye, Marilyn. The Politics of Reality.
Galbreath, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society.
Gerber, Rudolph & John M. Johnson. The Top 10 Death Penalty Myths.
Gide, Andre. The Immoralist. (Fic.)
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. (Fic.)
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. (Fic.)
Glassner, Barry. The Culture of Fear.
Gordon, Lewis R. Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism.*
Gould, Stephen Jay. Full House.
Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man.
Gould, Stephen Jay. Rocks of Ages.
Gracia, Jorge. Surviving Race, Ethnicity and Nationality.
Griffin, David Ray. God and Religion in the Postmodern World.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation.
Haraway, Donna Jeanne. The Companion Species Manifesto.
Haraway, Donna Jeanne. When Species Meet.
Harding, Sandra. The Science Question in Feminism.
Harding, Sandra. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?
Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire.*
Harris, John. On Cloning.
Harris, Sam. Letter to a Christian Nation.
Hesse, Hermann. Steppenwolf. (Fic.)
Hick, John. A Christian Theology of Religion.
Hick, John. God Has Many Names.
Hick, John. Evil and the God of Love.*
Hick, John. An Interpretation of Religion.*
Hick, John. The Myth of God Incarnate.
Hing, Bill Ong. Deporting Our Souls.
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. The Caged Virgin.
Hitchens, Christopher. god is not Great.
d’ Holbach, Paul Henri Thierry, Baron. Good Sense.
hooks, bell. Black Looks.
hooks, bell. Reel to Real.
hooks, bell. Talking Back.
hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress.
Hume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.*
Hume, David. “Of Miracles” -- in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
Ignatieff, Michael. The Lesser Evil.*
Ingram, David B. Group Rights.
Jakobsen, Janet R. and Ann Pellegrini. Love the Sin.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You.
Jones, William R. Is God a White Racist?
Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual Peace.
Katz, Jonathan Ned. The Invention of Heterosexuality.
Kierkegaard, Søren. Attack Upon “Christendom”.
Kierkegaard, Søren. Fear and Trembling.*
Kierkegaard, Søren. The Sickness Unto Death.*
Kipnis, Laura. Against Love.
Kitcher, Philip. Life after Faith.
Kivel, Paul. You Call This a Democracy?
Kuhse, Helga & Peter Singer; Should the Baby Live?
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Kurtz, Paul et al. The Humanist Manifesto.
Kymlicka, Will. Multicultural Citizenship.
de la Mettrie, Julien Offray. Man a Machine.
Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern.
Lenin, V. I. Imperialism.
Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved.
Lewontin, Richard C. Biology as Ideology.
Lewontin, Richard et al. Not in Our Genes.*
Lott, Tommy L. The Invention of Race.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition.*
MacIntyre, Alasdair. Dependent Rational Animals.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. Whose Justice? Which Rationality?*
Mackie, J. L. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong.
Mackie, J.L. The Miracle of Theism.
Malik, Kenan. Multiculturalism and Its Discontents.
Marcuse, Herbert. An Essay on Liberation.
Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man.
Marcuse, Herbert. “Repressive Tolerance”—in A Critique of Pure Tolerance.
Martin, Michael. Atheism.*
Martin, Michael. Atheism, Morality and Meaning.*
Martin, Michael. The Case against Christianity.
Marx, Karl. “The Fetishism of Commodities”—in Capital, volume 1.
Marx, Karl. Wage Labor and Capital.
McMahan, Jeff. Killing in War.
McNamee, Stephen J. & Robert K. Miller. The Meritocracy Myth.
Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized.
Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty.
Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women.
Millett, Kate. Sexual Politics.
Miranda, José Porfírio. Marx and the Bible.
Mishima, Yukio. “Patriotism”—in Death in Midsummer. (Fic.)
Mohr, Richard D. The Long Arc of Justice.
Mohr, Richard D. A More Perfect Union.
Moore, Alan. Batman: The Killing Joke. (Fic.)
Moore, Alan. V for Vendetta. (Fic.)
Moore, Alan. The Watchmen. (Fic.)
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. (Fic.)
Morrow, James. Blameless in Abaddon. (Fic.)
Morrow, James. City of Truth. (Fic.)
Morrow, James. The Philosopher’s Apprentice.* (Fic.)
Moser, Paul K. The Elusive God.
Moser, Paul K. The Severity of God.
Nagel, Thomas. The Possibility of Altruism.
Nagel, Thomas and Liam Murphy. The Myth of Ownership.*
Nielsen, Kai. Ethics without God.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Anti-Christ.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy.*
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals.*
Nietzsche, Friedrich. “On Truth and Lie in Their Nonmoral Sense”—in Philosophy and Truth.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. (Fic.)
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Twilight of the Idols.
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought.
Nisbett, Richard E. & Lee Ross. The Person and the Situation.
Nishitani Keiji. Religion and Nothingness.*
Noddings, Nel. Caring.
Nussbaum, Martha C. From Disgust to Humanity.
Nussbaum, Martha C. Frontiers of Justice.*
Nussbaum, Martha C. Hiding from Humanity.*
Nussbaum, Martha C. Liberty of Conscience.*
Nussbaum, Martha C. Upheavals of Thought.*
Okin, Susan Moller. Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
Okin, Susan Moller. Justice, Gender, and the Family.
Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Dehumanization of Art.
Ortega y Gasset, Jose. The Revolt of the Masses.
Orwell, George. A Clergyman’s Daughter. (Fic.)
Outlaw, Lucius T. Critical Social Theory in the Interests of Black Folk.
Parks, Jennifer A. No Place Like Home?
Parsons, Keith M. God and the Burden of Proof.
Pateman, Carol. The Sexual Contract.
Pinnock, Clark H. Most Moved Mover.
Pinnock, Clark H. et al. The Openness of God.
Plantinga, Alvin C. Warranted Christian Belief.
Plato. Apology.
Plato. Symposium.
Polanyi, Michael. Personal Knowledge.
Polanyi, Michael. Science, Faith and Society.
Rachels, James. The End of Life.
Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged.* (Fic.)
Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness.
Rauch, Jonathan. Gay Marriage.
Reiman, Jeffrey. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison.
Rollin, Bernard E. Animal Rights and Human Morality.
Rollin, Bernard E. The Frankenstein Syndrome.
Rorty, Richard M. Contingency, Irony, Solidarity.
Rorty, Richard M. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature.
Rossing, Barbara R.; The Rapture Exposed.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on Inequality.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
Rubenstein, Richard L. The Cunning of History.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-Talk.
Ruse, Michael; Can a Darwinian be a Christian?
Russell, Bertrand. The Conquest of Happiness.
Russell, Bertrand. Education and the Good Life.
Russell, Bertrand. Marriage and Morals.
Russell, Bertrand. Why I am Not a Christian.
Sade, Marquis de. “Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man”-in The Misfortunes of Virtue. (Fic.)
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism.*
Salecl, Renata. The Tyranny of Choice.
Sandel, Michael. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice.
Sanders, John. The God Who Risks.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Anti-Semite and Jew.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Dirty Hands. (Fic.)
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Humanism.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existential Psychoanalysis.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit. (Fic.)
Schellenberg, J. L. Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason.*
Schellenberg, J. L. Evolutionary Religion.
Schellenberg, J. L. The Hiddenness Argument.
Schellenberg, J. L. The Wisdom to Doubt.*
Schmitt, Richard. Alienation and Freedom.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. “On the Sufferings of Life” and “On the Vanity of Existence”.
Schweickart, David. After Capitalism.
Schweickart, David. Against Capitalism.
Sextus Empiricus. Outlines of Pyrrhomism.
Shankara. The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom.
Shelby, Tommie. We Who Are Dark.
Sherwin, Susan. No Longer Patient.
Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. (Fic.)
Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation.*
Singer, Peter. Democracy and Dissent.
Singer, Peter. One World.
Singer, Peter. Rethinking Life and Death.
Singer, Peter and Jim Mason. The Ethics of What We Eat.
Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter. Morality without God?
Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity.
Soble, Alan G. Pornography, Sex, and Feminism.
Sokal, Alan and Jean Bricmot. Fashionable Nonsense.*
Solomon, Robert C. The Passions.
Solomon, Robert C. Spirituality for the Skeptic.
Solomon, Robert C. True to Our Feelings.
Spong, John Shelby. Jesus for the Non-Religious.
Spong, John Shelby. Liberating the Gospels.
Spong, John Shelby. Living in Sin?
Spong, John Shelby. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism.
Spong, John Shelby. Sins of Scripture.
Sunstein, Cass. Why Nudge?
Swinburne, Richard. The Existence of God.
Szasz, Thomas S. Law, Liberty and Psychiatry.
Szasz, Thomas S. The Myth of Mental Illness.
Szasz, Thomas S. The Myth of Psychotherapy.
Taylor, Richard. Love Affairs—previously published as Having Love Affairs.
Thoreau, Henry David. Essay on Civil Disobedience.
Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be.
Tillich, Paul. Dynamics of Faith.
Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. (Fic.)
Trout, J. D. The Empathy Gap.
Unger, Peter. Ignorance.
Valenti, Jessica. The Purity Myth.
Vaneigem, Raoul. The Revolution of Everyday Life.
Vidal, Gore. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.
Voltaire. Candide. (Fic.)
Voltaire. Micromegas. (Fic.)
Voltaire. A Treatise on Toleration.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Deadeye Dick. (Fic.)
Vonnegut, Kurt. Mother Night. (Fic.)
Vonnegut, Kurt. Player Piano. (Fic.)
Waltman, Jerold L. The Case for the Living Wage.
Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal.
West, Cornel. Democracy Matters.
West, Cornel. Prophecy Deliverance!
West, Cornel. Race Matters.
Wiesel, Elie. Dawn. (Fic.)
Wiesel, Elie. The Trial of God. (Fic.)
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower. (Fic.)
Wilkerson, William S. Ambiguity and Sexuality.
Williams, Bernard. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.
Williams, Bernard. Truth and Truthfulness.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth.
Wolf, Naomi. The End of America.
Wolf, Naomi. (Mis)Conceptions.
Wolff, Robert Paul. In Defense of Anarchism.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Yancy, George. Black Bodies, White Gazes.*
Young, Iris Marion; Inclusion and Democracy.
Young, Iris Marion. Justice and the Politics of Difference.*
Young, Iris Marion. Responsibility for Justice.
Žižek, Slavoj. In Defense of Lost Causes.*
Žižek, Slavoj. On Belief.*
Žižek, Slavoj. Violence.
Žižek, Slavoj. Welcome to the Desert of the Real!
Zuckerman, Phil. Society without God.