new review of book

The American Historical Review reviewed my 2011 book, Ebenezer Hazard, Jeremy Belknap, and the American Revolution. It was an ok review. The reviewer pointed out that the book recreates the lives and thoughts of these two men. But the reviewer believed it was not sufficiently scholarly, as I did not discuss current books by scholars and integrate my book into scholarly literature. My question is: does a book have to conform to current scholarship and play the academic game to be a good read?Ebenezer Hazard, Jeremy Belknap and the American Revolution