Lewis & Clark Libraries: Finding Book Reviews: Start Here

Why Use Book Reviews?

Book reviews can save you time—they provide short critiques and responses to a book's thesis, analysis, and structure. They can also illuminate previous scholarship and highlight current debates in the field.

Here's an example of a book review from JSTOR.

Books (whether printed or online) are still a crucial component of scholarly discourse, especially in the humanities and social sciences.

Sometimes it is very simple to find a book review. At other times, it can be very difficult. Ask a librarian for assistance if you do not have success fairly quickly.

Key Sources of Book Reviews

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Select "Book Review" under Document Type in the advanced search.
Academic Search Premier is a comprehensive, scholarly, and multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 12,000 full-text periodicals, including more than 4,700 peer-reviewed journals. The database also offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Many areas of academic study are covered, including: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology, and many other fields. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window
Excerpts and full-text reviews from newspapers, popular magazines, and academic journals starting in 1983. See Watzek's print version in the reference area for books published between 1905–1983.
Book Review Index This link opens in a new window
Locates book reviews in general magazines like the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, etc. A very useful print resource.
JSTOR Book Reviews This link opens in a new window
Use the advanced search to limit your results to reviews.

London Review of Books
Begun in 1979, each issue contains up to 15 long reviews and essays by academics, writers, and journalists. There are also shorter art and film reviews, as well as poems and a lively letters page.
New York Review of Books
Full-text back to 1963.
New York Times Book Review
Not as scholarly, goes back to 1981.

Other Sources of Book Reviews

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals
This outstanding set contains citations to reviews that appeared in more than 450 scholarly journals. Especially excellent for finding academic reviews of history, political science, and sociology books that were published or reviewed between 1886–1974. Available in print only.
Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities
Covers 1960–1990.

New York Times - Historical This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full text articles, photos, and advertisements in the New York Times from 1851 to the present (1 month delay).
The Historical New York Times provides full text and full image articles for the New York Times dating from 1851 through <3 years ago>. It has digital reproductions of every page of every issue, from cover to cover. The print New York Times Index is available in the Library and is useful for searching for specific topics, since the online version does not assign subject headings to articles.

Readers' Guide Retrospective
Index of more than 3 million articles from 375 popular and general interest periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada (1890–1982).
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Comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States; reflects the history of 20th century America. Current coverage for this database includes the years 1890 through 1982.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature This link opens in a new window
Subjects covered include: Aeronautics, African-Americans, Aging, Astronomy, Automobiles, Biography, Business, Canada, Children, Computers, Consumer Education, Current Events, Education, Environment, Fashion, Film, Fine Arts, Food, Foreign Affairs, Health, History, Hobbies, Home, Journalism, Leisure Activities, Medicine, Music, News, Nutrition, Photography, Politics, Religion, Science, Sports, and Television.

Research Help

Contact a research librarian for help with an assignment, project or resource.

Hours: Mon-Fri, 12PM-4PM.
503-768-7285
librarian@lclark.edu