Enemy in the Blood (Book Review Sample)
This book review assignment is designed to both help introduce you to recent scholarly work on the disease you’ve chosen to write your final essay on but also to help you learn how to critically read and critique secondary sources. Here are the instructions for selecting a disease for the final essay and a book to review.
This is different from a book report assignment which generally provides a summary of a book’s content. Here, we want you to go further. You need to provide a commentary on the book you read. What was the good, the bad, and the ugly of the book? Were you persuaded by the author’s argument in the book? Did the evidence they presented back up that argument?
Some resources to consult include:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
University of North Carolina Writing Center
Also, remember, you can always seek additional help from the university’s THINK TANK. Make sure to provide them with these instructions so that they know exactly what we’re looking for!
Required Layout:
First paragraph: Provide a summary of the book including what the author’s argument (thesis statement) is. This paragraph should be no more than 150 words.
Body paragraphs: Analyze the book. Some questions to ask and answer:
What did you learn?
Were there certain parts of the book that stood out to you? Why?
Do you think the author was able to prove or support their argument? Why or why not?
Did you find any parts of the book to be lacking or weak? Why?
Final paragraph: Would you recommend this book to others? Why or why not? Did this book help inform your understanding of the disease it covers? How so? This paragraph should be no more than 150 words.
Enemy in the Blood
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The following is a book review for the text Enemy in the Blood: Malaria, Environment, and Development in Argentina that was written by Eric D. Carter. According to the author, there exists a relationship between malaria and development in Argentina can be characterized by contradictions. For example, while progress is being made with the help of new drugs and mosquito eradication efforts, the Argentine region of Patagonia still has one of the world's most vicious strains of malaria. Along with trying to comprehend how these two conditions coexist in real life, Carter sets out to describe how global changes in environmental policy are impacting Argentina's malaria epidemic. The following book is highly recommended for anyone interested in exploring both Argentine history and contemporary global politics. However, please keep in mind that some sections are written with a lot more academic jargon than others so it may not be appropriate for all audiences.
Carter is an anthropologist with the University of California, San Diego. Carter has personally experienced both the successes and failures of implementing malaria control interventions in Argentina, where he studied as a PhD student at the University of Buenos Aires. This book provides readers with a unique account of how interactions between people, culture, and disease can make transmission more difficult or even possible. The book starts by teasing readers by providing an overview of the history of malaria in Argentina before diving into specific examples.
According to Carter, the Republic of Argentina is home to the second largest malaria burden in the world, with an estimated 327 million episodes in 2015. This book attempts to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about this disease: “Why is there so much malaria in Argentina when it was eradicated over 50 years ago? Hence, the author provides a comprehensive analysis of how this endemic disease has not only reappeared but also thrived throughout the country. He takes a step back by acknowledging what has been done before, then dissects whether or not these actions have actually contributed to controlling or eliminating malaria in this part of the world.
Carter, Enemy in the Blood tackles the issue of malaria, whic
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