Can use any secondary source (book) written about the early American societies dating from 20,000 BC to 1500 CE
5. You need to evaluate this book from the following aspects and use them as section sub-titles to
organize your evaluation (A., B., C. etc., at least 1,000 words in length, double spaced):
A. Investigate the ongoing research on the subject: When was the book published? Have the ideas
been corrected, refuted, or revised since its publication? Or, as the Handbook asks: “Did the
author commit inadvertent factual errors which have since been corrected by other historians, or
by later editions of the same source?” How is the book reviewed by other scholars? Are there any
other studies on the same topic being published before or after? How have other authors and
scholars analyzed these issues and events? In what respects do their analyses and conclusions
agree or disagree with those expressed in the book you selected?
B. Identify the publisher and attempt to answer these questions from the Handbook: “Is the
author’s publisher reputable? Scholarly book presses and journals have stringent review processes
for manuscript submissions. Check the publisher’s web site to determine whether a “blind peer
review” process is in place.” Consider if the press is a university press (usually so named), a
famous popular trade press (such as Random House or Knopf), a small trade press for a small
market (usually specializes in a particular type of book, all with similar covers), or a vanity press
(the author pays to have the book published). Consider if the press is run by any political party or
organization, as well.
C. Identify the author and attempt to answer these questions from the Handbook:
i. “Is the author a reputable professional historian?” Oftentimes the historian’s academic
credentials and institutional affiliation at the time s/he wrote the source are mentioned in
the source itself. Dig a bit further, however. Here are some sources that will provide more
information about the historian’s reputation and perhaps even his/her philosophical
approach to history: book reviews can be found in (a.) the two history databases (America