Re-envisioning Book Reviews

By Andrew Brandel

American Anthropologist is re-envisioning book reviews. Starting in 2025, we will begin publishing review essays covering between two and five recent publications and connecting them to larger ideas and debates in the discipline. As Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Chin put it in a recent issue, “review essays provide a forum where a variety of moving parts can be put into dynamic conversation in ways not possible in single reviews. This is an opportunity for the review writer to exercise imagination, point of view, to call others in. In terms of form and approach, the review essay is extremely flexible and need not revert to formulaic structure or content.” Our hope is that the space provided by these essays will help expand their reach and relevance, renew interest in reviewing, and bring attention to a greater diversity of topics and authors. 

Review essays can be up to 5,000 words and will go through review. If you’d like to submit a proposal for a review essay, send a 500-word proposal including a list of books you’d like to discuss and your approach to aa_bookreviews@americananthro.org. You can also reach out to our Associate Editor, Andrew Brandel (abrandel@uchicago.edu), directly to discuss your idea. 

For more on the state of book reviews in the field, read Dr. Chin’s full piece here.