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Reviews Guide
Reviewing books and other forms of scholarship—including films, public history sites and museums, document collections, digital projects, podcasts, and many other genres—is a primary responsibility of the American Historical Review.
The AHR carefully selects reviewers, ensuring that they have demonstrated sufficient expertise in the relevant field and guarding carefully against potential conflicts of interest. Scholars who have already reviewed a work for another journal should not then agree to review it for the AHR. Reviewers and potential reviewers should maintain the spirit of objectivity inherent in the review process. They should avoid making public statements, commentaries, or electronic media posts/discussions about a book they have agreed to review. Membership in the American Historical Association is neither a requirement for nor a guarantee of selection as a reviewer. We do not assign book reviews to scholars at their own suggestion; invitations to review are based on independent staff judgments about the appropriate match between material and reviewer. If you meet the above criteria and want to be added to our large and growing database of reviewers, please send a CV for consideration to ahrreviews@historians.org.
As of 2023, the AHR no longer accepts print copies of books for review. Books reviewed in the AHR are selected from seasonal publisher catalogs. As an author, if you would like your book to be under consideration, please ensure your publisher has sent their latest catalog to ahrreviews@historians.org. Books listed in the catalog will be considered by our book review editors.
The AHR seeks to review genres of scholarship that make historical knowledge available to the discipline at large and the general public. We invite proposals for these kinds of reviews. All reviews are assigned in consultation with the Board of Editors and Associate Review Editors. Please note that suggesting a review does not guarantee that you will be chosen as the reviewer if a review is commissioned.
Such reviews can include, but are not limited to:
- Exhibits
- Films
- Public History projects
- Documentaries
- Podcasts
- Video games
- Graphic histories
- Digital History