July 19, 2002
Ignore Fast-Track Assessments of Scholarly Books at Your Peril
In May 1999, scholars reacted angrily to a lengthy review of five works on Native American history in The New York Review of Books. The dispute highlighted an important fact about academic life in the United States: When a scholarly book is published, it can undergo a double reception -- a kind of peer review within academe and, if it is lucky, an assessment in the mainstream media.
An author's colleagues in the field buy the book, read it, assign it to their students, review it in the
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