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Book Reviews

Book Review Indexes | General | Humanities | Science | Social Science

A book review is an article which describes and evaluates a book within a few years of its publication. It differs from a critical study of an author's life or works which may appear at any time. To locate a book review, it is helpful to know the year of publication as well as the author and exact title. In many cases Socrates, Stanford's online catalog, can give you this information.

Book Review Indexes

Book Review Digest, (1983+ on Web; 1905+ Green Library Information Center Z1035.A1B58) Cites and abstracts reviews for American and British books in English language periodicals. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author, with a title and subject index in each volume. There is also a cumulative author/title index for 1905-1974.

Book Review Index, v. 1, 1965+ (Green Library Information Center Z1035.A1B6) Lists reviews in more than 500 periodicals by author. Beginning in 1976, a title index follows the author index. There is a cumulative index for 1965-1974.

Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, v. 1, 1960-1990 (Green Library Information Center Z1035.A1I63) Cites popular and scholarly book reviews in all the humanities. Includes reviews of historical works until 1970.

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 (Green Library Information Center Z1035.A1C638 1982) .

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974 (Green Library Information Center Z1035.A1C64) Author/title index to reviews in history, political science, and sociology journals.

General & Interdisciplinary Indexes

Alternative Press Index (1991+ on Web; 1969-71, & 1974+ Green Library Information Center Z7164.S66A5) Under the subject heading "Book Review," cites reviews in radical or alternative publications.

Contemporary Women's Issues (1992+ on the Web) To limit your search to book reviews, choose "Book review" under "Article type." This is a full-text database which includes Women's Review of Books."

H-Net Reviews in the Social Sciences & Humanities - access reviews published by H-Net's discussion networks.

Expanded Academic ASAP general index to over 1500 magazines with some fulltext. (1980+) Click Proceed.

New York Review of Books - (on the Web) Index to reviews from 1963, text of reviews since 1996. Current paper copies in the HASRC (Lane) Reading Room.

New York Times Index (free registration at the Web site allows you to search for book reviews from past issues.) (1851+ Green Library Information Center AI21.L65L6) In the paper index, look under subject heading "Book Reviews," which cites reviews that appeared in the New York Times.

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (Green Library Information Center AI3.S6) index to popular periodicals that goes back to the nineteenth century. See also Readers' Guide Retrospective (1963-1982) Starting with v. 36, March 1976, reviews are listed in a "Books Reviews" section at the end of each index volume.

The Times Index, 1785+ (Official Index to The Times (1906-1980) and Palmer's Index to The Times (1790-1905) on Web; paper version in Green Library Information Center AI21.T46) indexes the London Times. Book reviews are under "Books (titles and reviews)" .

The Times Literary Supplement Index, 1902-1985 (Green Library Information Center AI21.T49) Under title citations, generally, "a review will be the first item referred to..."

GenderWatch (on Web) This is a full-text database of some feminist journals, newsletters, and other hard-to-find items.

Women's Studies International (on Web) contains 1984+ of Women Studies Abstracts, (v. 1, 1972+ Green Library Informaton Center Z7962.W65) In the paper version "Book Review" section follows the main body of abstracts. Listed by author of book in the cumulative index for each volume.

Humanities Indexes

America: History and Life (1964+ on Web) Cites reviews of books on U.S. and Canadian history and related disciplines in scholarly journals. Select review as "Doctype".

Art Abstracts (1984+) ; Art Index Retrospective 1929-1984

Arts and Humanities Citation Index, 1975+

Film Literature Index, 1973+ (Green Library Information Center Z5784.M9F53) Subject and author index to international film and television/video literature appearing in periodicals. Book reviews are listed by author and subject. Beginning with vol. 14, 1986 this index is divided into two sections-Part 1: Film , Part 2: Television/video.

Humanities Abstracts (1984+; abstracts beginning in 1994) (1974+ Green Library Information Center AI3.H8) Separate "Book Reviews" section at the end of each volume.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1969+ (under Music Literature)

Science Indexes

SciSearch (1900+) - Web version of Science Citation Index.

Social Science Indexes

Econlit (1969+). This gives you the fulltext of book reviews published in the Journal of Economic Literature since September 1993.

Journal of Economic Literature, (1969+ does not include the last 3 years) These are the actual reviews not an index to reviews in other publications.

Social Sciences Index, 1974+ (Green Library Information Center AI3S62; also on Web as Social Sciences Abstracts (1983+; abstracts beginning in 1994) part of FirstSearch from OCLC ) See separate "Book Reviews" section at the end of each volume.

Sociological Abstracts (1963+) (1952-1973 shelved at Green Library Information Center HM1.S67)

Last modified: September 17, 2008