STS 345: Physics in the Modern World: Books & Book Reviews

Avoid general newspaper reviews and personal book reviews, like those on blogs or on amazon.com. These can't help you analyze your book like  a scholar. Two tips for finding book review:

• Check to see when your book was published. If it was published more than twenty years ago, and you aren't finding reviews online, you'll need to look beyond online sources and check print indexes.
• If you're having trouble finding a review, check with a librarian for help and to cover all your bases, but remember that some books are never reviewed. If that's the case, think about what that might mean about the book's scholarly importance.

To find more scholarly book reviews from the last twenty years or so, first try searching your book title in Primo Search, which can return book reviews along with information about the book itself. Check the icons to look for 'reviews' or 'articles' which include the title of the book.

Then try one of the databases below. Search by the title of the book, or by the author of the review and a keyword from the title.

• Academic Search Premier  
  Finds reviews for books published from about 1975-present Limit to book reviews: Before you run your search, scroll down to 'Document Type' and limit to 'Book Review.' Use the author's last name and a keyword from the book title in your search.
• JSTOR  
  Search for books published from the 1800s up to about five years ago. To limit to reviews: click Advanced Search, then check 'review.'
• Research Library
  Search for books published from 1986 up to the present. To limit your search to book reviews, use Advanced Search, click and expand the gray tab labeled 'More Search Options', and select Review > Book Review under 'Document Type'.
• America: History and Life 
Select the "Advanced Search" option. Type (in quotation marks) the title of the book for which you seek reviews. Under the limiter options, select "book review" in the "Document Type" category.

For older books, you will need to use print indexes to book reviews. At Collins, try the following print resources, all found in the library's Reference section.