Journal of Southern Religion

Journal of Southern Religion Style Sheet for Book Reviews

Thank you for agreeing to review a book for the Journal of Southern Religion. Reviews are a vital part of the Journal. At their best, as historian Steven Stowe has observed, reviews are a "vernacular form of scholarly talk" that assess where we are, where we are going, and how we might best reshape our work.

When you receive your review copy, please send a short message to the book review editor at arthurremillard@yahoo.com confirming receipt of the book.

Within eight weeks, please submit your review to the book review editor for approval and editing. He will send it to the managing editor for publication.

Please refer to the guidelines below as you write.
CONTENT

JSR seeks reviews that:

1. Tell plainly what the book says and for whom it is written. Most readers read reviews first to find out what books say. In addition, a careful assessment of the book's intended audience is of particular interest to the readers of an interdisciplinary journal such as the JSR.

2. Set the author's argument in a broad context of scholarly analysis. Reviewers should bear in mind that scholars from a variety of disciplines will read the review. The perspectives of the reviewer's own discipline will be of great interest, but reviewers should avoid assessments based solely on issues of interest to those in a single field or subfield.

3. Suggest whether the author achieves the book's stated purpose and assesses the significance of that goal. Criticism is welcomed, of course, but it should be made only on courteous and constructive terms. The editor will ask reviewers to rewrite sections that breach this standard, and in rare cases, will refuse a submission for this reason.

Writing should be concise yet lively, and should strive to balance a personal voice with careful analysis. At their best, reviewers are both actor and audience.

STYLE AND FORMAT