Canadian Society and Social Justice
Review the book:
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance, University of Minnesota Press, 2017
Write an academic book review of above books on Canadian Society and Social Justice.
Length: 8–10 pages – 1.5 spaced
Book review structure:
1. Title including complete bibliographic citation for the work
2. A section identifying the thesis and purpose of the book followed by a summary the book’s chapters and ideas. 3–4 pages
3. A section on the how the book relates to the themes of Social Justice in Canada. Here you will use concepts from the course readings to analyze how the author addresses the gendered, racialized, sexual and class legacies and/ or continuities of settler colonialism and its parallels: the congoing afterlife of antiBlackness and racist coloniality. 3–4 pages
4. A final section on your assessment of whether the author achieves the book’s stated purpose and its overall strengths & weaknesses. 2–3 pages
5. Bibliography of the works cited in your review
Central Questions
• What is the thesis–or main argument–of the book? What is the author’s purpose? What
does the author want the reader to get from the book? How does that idea compare to
the world you know? What does the book accomplish?
• What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject
adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a fair way? What is their
approach to the subject (topical, analytical, historical, descriptive)?
• How does the topic of the book relate to the themes, ideas, concepts, analytical
frameworks, and historical realities we have been studying in this course? How do
questions intersectionality colonialism/ settler coloniality, indigeneity, antiBlackness,
Book Review Assignment
White Canadian Nationalism, and heteropatriarchy inform the work? How do Simpson’s views about race, colonialism, and decoloniality dovetail with, and/ or differ from authors such as George, King, Maynard, and Sharma? Do you think Simpson’s analysis agrees with Lawrence’s approa