Honors World History                                                            Mr. Konicki and Mrs Prettyman

Summer Reading and Assignment

Students taking Honors World History for the 2008/2009 school year will complete the following.  You are to read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford.  You will complete a book review to be turned in the first day of class in September.  You will also have to submit your work to www.turnitin.com following your return to school in September.  So to be clear you will turn in a hard copy your first day back to school in September and will later, after you receive the password, submit it to www.turnitin.com.

Book Review Format

The prescribed length of the review is three to four double-spaced typewritten pages or a maximum of 1000 words.

1. Provide the author, title, date of original publication, date of the edition you used, publisher, and ISBN number.

1. In two to three paragraphs summarize the book.  In this section assume that your reader is unfamiliar with the work and you need to clearly, precisely, and concisely give him/her the gist.

1. In three to five paragraphs describe the historical significance of the work.  Provide information on how this work was or was not influential in its time.  Note in specific detail how this work could be used by a historian to study the period in which the work was written.  If suitable, you may describe how it could be used in different fields of history such as political, social, intellectual, cultural, or economic. This is the heart of the paper and a way for you to show your understanding of the work you read.

1. In two to three paragraphs relate why you would recommend this work to a fellow student.  Describe candidly what you thought were the strengths and the weaknesses of the work and how and what a fellow student could learn from it.