Book excerpt: Since 1950, when Hans Selye first devoted an entire book to the study of stress,professional and public concern with stress has grown tremendous ly. These concerns have contributed to an understanding that has impli cations for both prevention and treatment. The present book is designed to combine these data with the clinical concerns of dealing with stressed populations. In order to bridge the gap between research and practice, contributions are included by major researchers who have been con cerned with the nature of stress and coping and by clinical researchers who have developed stress management and stress prevention programs. The book is divided into three sections. The goal of the first section is to survey the literature on stress and coping and to consider the implica tions for setting up stress prevention and management programs. Follow ing some introductory observations by the editors are the observations of three prominent investigators in the field of stress and coping. Irving JaniS, Seymour Epstein, and Howard Leventhal have conducted seminal studies on the topic of coping with stress. For this book they have each gone beyond their previous writings in proposing models and guidelines for stress prevention and management programs. While each author has tackled his task somewhat differently, a set of common suggestions has emerged.