Book excerpt: If handbooks can be inspiring, this is it! Like a true companion, it takes in its stride conversations both big and small. Its entries do not just present an international and multidisciplinary mix, but true to life they work on several different scales. And, importantly, the book makes its authority evident. For it is like an extended website, but with all the added advantages of an encyclopaedia that actually tells you about the authors and the sources on which they have drawn. The resulting compilation is highly intelligent, thoughtful and above all usable. Dame Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge, UK The Elgar Companion to Development Studies is a major production in the development studies field, authored by a star-studded cast of contributors. With 136 entries covering a vast range of topics, it should quickly establish itself as a leading work of reference. We should all feel indebted to David Clark, who has successfully brought this substantial publishing project to completion. John Toye, University of Oxford, UK This is a most comprehensive handbook on development studies. It brings together a wide, varied array of carefully crafted summaries of 136 key topics in development by an international cast of well-respected academics and other experts in respective areas of study. The handbook is heavily interdisciplinary, organically combining economic, political, historical, social, cultural, institutional, ethical, and human aspects of development. While the wide range of entries might appear as a simple glossary listing or an encyclopedic collection, each of the 136 entries offers more depth and discussion than the average handbook. . . . Viewed in this light, this companion is highly likely to become known as a leading reference work on the topic. Highly recommended. Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, Choice The Elgar Companion to Development Studies is an innovative and unique reference book that includes original contributions covering development economics as well as development studies broadly defined. This major new Companion brings together an international panel of experts from varying backgrounds who discuss theoretical, ethical and practical issues relating to economic, social, cultural, institutional, political and human aspects of development in poor countries. It also includes a selection of intellectual biographies of leading development thinkers. While the Companion is organised along the lines of an encyclopaedia, each of its 136 entries provide more depth and discussion than the average reference book. Its entries are also extremely diverse: they draw on different social science disciplines, incorporate various mixes of theoretical and applied work, embrace a variety of methodologies and represent different views of the world. The Elgar Companion to Development Studies will therefore appeal to students, scholars, researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the filed of development as well as the interested layman.