Elements of a Book Review
Book reviews is a very essential element of a sound criticism, which pushes literature to further development. The practice demonstrates that writing a good book is rarely done from the first attempt. Instead, the writers have to complete many editions, revise it continually and introduce modifications, so that their writing becomes heartily perceived even by the inveterate critics from the community. Thus, the main purpose of a book review is to interact with the writer, and to inform him or her whether the work was a) relevant to the today’s interests of the community and b) whether the book was written in a really professional manner, so that the readers will find useful.
A typical book review has several indispensable elements. Firstly, the practice shows that a good book review always deals with the book and never with the author. Thus, a reviewer should never make any speculations and the author’s intelligence, depth of research etc. A product of a good review is simply a subjective evaluation of what the reviewer has read.
Secondly, a good book review is always balance, meaning that the reviewer has to attempt highlighting both the positive and the negative features of the book. Focusing just on one side of the book is not tolerated in professional book review writing.
Thirdly, a good review is expected to provide an opinion of the writer, mostly focusing on analysis, than on the summary of this book. Getting a summary is easy from many other places. What is important for the reader is whether a book is worth buying and reading.
Fourthly, a good book review is always specific. That means that the author should clearly identify what he likes in the book and what dislikes, providing samples and illustrations to support his or her claims.
Three Problems in Power Concedes Nothing
This book is about the rise to power of one of the most outstanding American civil rights activists Constance Connie Rice. Despite the fact that this books provides a very detailed and vivid account of her professional and personal achievements (Rice, 2012). However, the main idea behind the creation of that book was to emphasize unique legal litigation skills of Constance Rice, who managed to apply them in the most outstanding scenarios. The book also highlights that three most popular criminological theories are frequently supported by the real-life cases.
Thus, rational choice theory is well explained in the cases, which involved commission of crime with the purpose of getting financial gain (Fuller, 2012. When a potential criminal feels that the outcomes of the punishment will not outweigh potential benefits of the crime, the chances that a crime will be perpetuated are quite high. The book specifically emphasizes the problem of rising inequality in the American community, therefore concluding that rational choice may be used as one of the most frequent explanations of the crime propensities.
Secondly, social strain theory of crime is also relevant to this case. This theory states that in order to pursue the dreams of freedom and financial prosperity that are traditional American values, an individual may easily break the law, if no other opportunities seem executable for him (Deflem, 2006).
Finally, biosocial theory, which purports that the individual propensities to crime are determined by the combination of complex social and individual biological factors of and individual (Fuller, 2012), received comparatively poor attention from the writer. This illustrated that Connie Rice is a vigorous advocate of societal influence on the potential delinquents.
In general, the book is an important ‘orientation’ for the future civil law practitioners. Not only it provides a detailed description of the effective legal tactics, but also it reveals the criteria, which the judges use to make a decision.
Bibliography
Rice, Connie. 2012. Power Concedes Nothing. New York: Scribner
Fuller, John R. 2012. Think Criminology. New York: McGraw-Hill
Deflem, Mathieu. 2006. Sociological theory and criminological research views from Europe and the United States. Amsterdam Oxford: Elsevier/JAI.
