I've been reading a number of dated history book lately. What is the most effective way to find up to date critiques of those books. For example, I recently finished The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. I know that there has been a lot of work since then that contradicts portions of this book, and I'm sure that there methodological issues that have been picked over. Not being a historian, I'd like to find a resource that will explain all these to me. And lots of books are controversial or flawed they day they are released.
Is there a good resource for this somewhere? This questions is applicable to all history books, not just TRaFotTR. Specifically, I would like to line up some dated popular history books with some good critiques ahead of time, then read both in order.
Related question: Are there any good texts on the influence of important historical texts? IE, is there something that can put TRaFotTR itself and other influential books in their historical context?
I've often encountered the same problem myself--especially when I am reading a well-known work that is often referenced and critiqued by later authors. I have a couple of methods for handling this (though no single resource). Firstly, if you are reading a major work that inspired a lot of diverse opinions, you might do well to pair it a few later texts or articles that explain and clarify the original text's legacy and its limitations. An academic journal or more recent book in the same field as the topic of your book may be an excellent place to start since later scholars looking at the same topics will almost always address earlier work on the same topic and contextualize it by either explaining its strengths or weaknesses as it pertains to later work.
If you are fortunate enough to find a literature review of a given topic (these are periodically offered in academic journals) then read through that to get an idea of the scope of a field, the major works, and the new contributions. Older volumes are often discussed in these publications as a way of explaining how a field or specialty has developed over time.
Also, many academic journals devote many pages to reviews of recent publications. These reviews are written by other scholars in the field and provide a concise, critical look at recent publications. They are especially helpful if you want to understand the potential strengths and weaknesses of a given book before you get started.
Some of these works can be a bit hard (and expensive) to access without proximity to an academic library but if you're in the U.S., there are quite a few public libraries that have subscriptions to history journals where you will be able to find what you are looking for.