• Publisher: When you are initially searching for books, looking at the publisher can help you distinguish scholarly historical work from more popular historical works. University or College Presses are typically associated with their affiliated University and largely publish peer-review, scholarly monographs. Other publishers might also print scholarly look. If you are unsure, search the publisher and look at their about to see the scope of what they publish.
• Author or Editor: Some scholarly books will be a collection of chapters from different authors. Such books can offer different perspectives on the overarching topic. However, books that has the same author(s) throughout the entire book can usually provide more a more in-depth look at a topic. Look at the table of contents to see if each chapter has an independent author listed if you are unsure.
• Date: Try and locate books that are more recently published. The authors of these books should give a good overview of the current discourse in the field at the point of publication. So the newer the work, the more up-to-date this information will be. The exception might be if that book is significant to the field in which case it should be cited across multiple sources.
• Bibliography/Footnotes: Most scholarly books will have footnotes, endnotes, and/or some form of a bibliography. (If the book doesn't not have citations, it might be a popular text). The information provided in these citations can help lead you to other sources that might be critical parts of the discourse around your topic.

Book reviews help scholars, professors, and librarians determine how a particular new book contributes to its field or subfield. Reviews can also help you get a feel for what a book about and if it's worth spending your time with it. Several journals will publish book reviews are part of their publication.

You might also search in some of our databases for reviews. Typically searching "the title of the book" in quotes along with review will give you results for book reviews.