Book excerpt: First Published in 1994. Hopkins and Putnam hold a questioning and healthily sceptical attitude towards the theory and practice of adventure education, something they claim has received insufficient reflection by practitioners on the nature of the process of adventure education. This title outlines their claims that a clear and simple exposition of principles and, consequently, practice has not been well enough informed. Written to stimulate debate, the critical stance that prompted the authors' way of thinking, and so ultimately the book, has a great deal to do with the pervading attitudes at the Outward Bound schools.