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How Book Reviewers Can Recognize a Classic When They See One

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Helen Ingram
Helen Ingram*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Extract

The End of Liberalism is one of the most widely read books in political science. As book review editor of the American Political Science Review, it interests me that the reviewers of neither the first nor second edition of the book predicted its enormous success. While the reviews were clearly positive in tone, they were far from effusive, and none suggested that the book would become required reading for a generation of political science students. My own copy of the book is annotated by three sets of underlines and comments—my own and those of my two daughters who were assigned the book as undergraduates. Why has the book become so important? What can we learn from it about the ingredients of a great book? Given the broad readership that has responded to Lowi's book, how relevant are the criteria that political scientists use to evaluate their own literature? What qualities should disciplinary reviewers watch for if they hope to recognize what will become a classic?

Type
Features
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 576 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1990

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