Book excerpt: This book brings together fifteen comprehensive studies of significant North American scholars of comparative education from the 20th century. Providing relevant biographical detail, chapters analyse each scholar's approach to comparative education and their on-going influences on the field. Comparative studies in education have long benefited from the work of significant individuals who have collectively advanced the field, making it a vibrant and intellectually fruitful area of educational research. Offering a unique, systematic exploration of the work of the founders of comparative educational research, North American Scholars of Comparative Education emphasizes the importance of understanding the accomplishments of key historical figures in the field, and considers the legacies such individuals have created. Chapters move beyond descriptions of comparativists' work, to illustrate the pivotal role played by each scholar in driving a progression through humanistic and scientific approaches, to new epistemological traditions within the field of comparative education. This in turn reveals critical historical-epistemological transitions which have had lasting impacts on the field. Including contributions written by leading scholars in the field, this volume will be of great interest to researchers, academics and scholars in comparative and international education.