Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover (Quote)

It’s a challenge to pick the next history book to read. Bookshops are filled with enthusiastic recommendations and well-intentioned championship, but there can also be a measure of chicanery. How can you tell the one from the other?

Historians provide endorsements for each other’s books. This is all above board and proper, in the nature of scholarly patronage. Endorsements are designed to give the curious potential reader a yardstick by which to measure the book in their hands, trusting in the authority and honesty of the one endorsing it. Accepting that a publisher may have extracted or shortened the judgement, readers accept implicitly that the endorser has read the book in full and given their genuine, informed opinion.