Book excerpt: This book analyzes the impact of historical, political and sociocultural contexts on the reading, rewriting and translating of texts. The authors base their arguments on their experiences of translating or researching different text types, taking in fiction, short stories, memoirs, religious texts, scientific treatises, and news reports from a variety of different languages and cultural traditions. In doing so they cover a wide range of contexts and time periods, including Early Modern Europe, post-1848 Switzerland, nineteenth-century Portugal, Egypt in the early twentieth century under British colonial rule, Spain under Franco’s dictatorship, and contemporary Peru and China. They also consider the theoretical and pedagogical implications of their conclusions for translation students and practitioners. This edited collection will be of great interest to scholars working in translation studies, applied linguistics, and on issues of cultural difference.