Book Review Style Sheet

GUIDELINES FOR BOOK REVIEWS

1. Humanity & Society book reviews should be no more than 1000 words in length.  Reviews which significantly exceed this limit will be returned for revision.

2. Book reviews should be a review/critique rather than a simple summary of the contents of the book.  Reviewers are strongly encouraged to discuss the relevance of the book for a humanist sociology, broadly defined as a sociology that views people not only as products of social forces but also as shapers of social life and a sociology that is committed to work towards a more humane, equal, and just society.

3. Headings should be prepared as follows:

CASTE, CLASS & RACE

 Oliver C. Cox. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. 1948. 624 pp.

Reviewer's Name
 Affiliation

4. Reviews should be single-spaced.  Margins should be 1-1/2 inches on the left side, 1 inch on all other sides.  Do not use headers, pagination, hyphenation, or right justification.

5. Reviews should not contain footnotes or references unless specifically accepted as a review essay.  Review essays should use the American Sociological Review format for references.

6. Quotations from the book should be followed by page numbers in parentheses and a period; e.g., "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles"  (2).  Quotations of four lines or more should be indented.

7.  Edited volumes may be particularly challenging for reviewers.  See below for suggestions for reviews of edited volumes.

8. Please submit your review electronically using standard word processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word). 

9. Failure to observe the editorial deadline may significantly delay publication of your review.

10. Humanity & Society editors reserve the right to edit for style and grammar.

Reviews of Edited Volumes

Past experience has indicated that edited collections are particularly difficult to review.  The following suggestions may be helpful as you prepare your review:

· The most common mistake is to attempt to summarize, or even to describe, the entire work.  Instead, present a brief outline/summary of the major themes of the work, followed by your comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the book.

· Given space limitations, it is impossible to mention each chapter.  Instead, limit your comments to those chapters that you find particularly outstanding, provocative, or problematic.

· In your discussion of the book, it would also be helpful to discuss the book's contributions to the field, as well as those issues that still need to be studied.

· In terms of "relevance for a humanist sociology," it would be useful to make a few observations as to why it is important to understand the major themes/issues raised by the contributors to the volume.