Reviewer Guidelines
What Kinds of Books Do We Review?
We primarily review books on classical education and pedagogy. These kinds of books tend to fall into two categories:
a) Recent books related to classical education & the liberal arts. For example: Battle for the American Mind, The Life We Have Together, or Tried and True: a Primer on Sound Pedagogy.
b) Older books that are minor “classics” in their own right. For example: The Intellectual Life, or Leisure: the Basis of Culture, or Norms and Nobility.
We also review books that are not directly related to classical eduation, but which we believe classical educators ought to know about. For instance, Why We Do What We Do and The World Beyond Your Head.
If you’re interested in reviewing a book that doesn’t quite fit the description here, then we welcome you to send us an inquiry.
We also invite you to view our list of Books We Want to Review.
Who is our Audience?
Our email audience is comprised of classical educators, school leaders, policymakers, university professors, artists, parents, clergy, book publishers, and more.
We also post publically to social media outlets such as Twitter and LinkedIn, in addition to the Substack network of readers. Our reviews have appeared on RealClearBooks and New Advent.
Further Details
We generally advise reviews of 800 - 1200 words.
For tone, we aim for intellectually engaging, but not academic. We’d much prefer a quirky, engaging piece than one loaded with jargon.
A well-written review does more than merely summarize. It provides a distillation of a book’s major arguments, yes, but it also highlights why a book is significant, what it contributes, and what shortcomings it has. A good review is fair in the way a good friend is fair. It candidly points out imperfections (or even serious flaws), but it never fails to give praise where praise is due.
Please send a brief bio and headshot photo along with your submission.