Because historians view their own work as part of an ongoing scholarly conversation, they value the serious discussion of the work of other scholars in the field. In some courses, you may be asked to write a book review in which you analyze the logic and accuracy of a single scholarly work or several works on the same topic (a review of several works is called a review essay).
When you write a book review, you will have to make judgments about how much background information to provide about the book so that your readers will be able to understand and appreciate your critique.
Related topics:
Analyzing a written or a visual text
Critical essays
Research papers
Historiographic essays