BOOK REVIEW: Gordon Horwitz’s “Ghettostadt: Lódź and the Making of a Nazi City”

A book review of: Gordon Horwitz’s “Ghettostadt: Lódź and the Making of a Nazi City”. The book review must be 5 pages in length (approximately 1,250, excluding title page and footnotes).

Stated below are guidelines instructed from my professor himself:

The purpose of the book review is not only to provide a synopsis of the book, but rather a critical engagement with the author’s argument(s). This means that you need to go beyond providing a description of the book to evaluating what sort of evidence the author employs in defense of their argument.

Components of a Book Review:

Thesis: In providing a critical evaluation of the book, you must offer a thesis. This thesis should explain why the book is worthwhile to read and how it offers a novel approach to the study of the Holocaust. Essentially, you must explain why the book adds to our historical knowledge about the Holocaust.

Brief Overview of Book’s Topic(s): After the thesis, the first portion of the book review should provide an overview of the topic under investigation in the book. This can be done by summarizing each chapter in two to three sentences.

Critical Evaluation of Author’s Thesis: Once the reader, the TA and myself, have a general understanding of what the book is about, you will then move onto the critical analysis section of the book review. The information you provide in this section must support your thesis statement from the introduction. Support your analysis with evidence from the book, either through paraphrasing or direct quotation. You will be looking at how well the book’s author defends their thesis. Is the argument convincing? Does the author make claims unsubstantiated by the evidence provided in the book?

Conclusion: Provide a succinct review of the argument that you made in the book review. Then explain what the book adds to our understanding of the Holocaust, at least what you know of it from this course.

Formatting Guidelines for Written Work: All work must be double-spaced in Times New Roman 12-point font; have one-inch margins on each side; and include page numbers. The document to be submitted must be .doc, .docx, or .pdf.

Citations: You must use Chicago-style citations in the form of footnotes.

The format will be as followed: First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number. For subsequent citations, use the following: Last name, page number.

I have attached a replica sample of a book review I completed earlier in the semester that received a 91%. The paper instructions for this attachment were completed following the instructions I need done for Gordon Horwitz’s “Ghettostadt: Lódź and the Making of a Nazi City”.