The Social Science Encyclopedia - Softcover

Adam Kuper is an anthropologist, author of many books, regular broadcaster and contributer to TLS and the London Review of Books. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Jessica Kuper retired in 2002 as senior commissioning editor in the social sciences at Cambridge University Press.

This somewhat eccentric work includes entries under the disciplines of biology, medicine, philosophy, and psychiatry. A page-long entry on "semantics" ex plains what is actually meant by the sentence, "Mary hit Alice." While in formative, this properly belongs in an encyclopedia of linguistics or logic, not in an already truncated social-science volume. Others of the entries are equal ly misplaced, and some are uneven in quality; 500 scholars contributed to the effort, but editorial control seems lack ing. While the publication of a work of interdisciplinary thought is welcome, users cannot rely on finding the expect ed. "Acculturation" refers the reader to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences for further read inggood advice to follow for a first reading. Bill Bailey, Newton Gresh am Lib., Huntsville, Tex.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.