I have taught this book once in a course entitled Global Feminism and will be teaching it again in the fall of 2001. Basu's work is well organized, with each chapter on a specific country headed by a box containing important statistics. However, this work is not theoretical, but rather offers a compendium of information (history, political overview, issues, women's organizations addressing those issues and their history)about many individual countries. Thus, it can be used in conjunction with a more theoretical work to gain a good sense of issues in particular cultures. It is also quite useful in gaining an overview of women's issues and movements around the world. Unlike some of the more theoretical works on transnational feminism, Basu's style is quite easy to read and make sense of. Students did not find it particularly absorbing but found it very helpful in completing team projects on feminist issues. The Challenge of Local Feminisms is a handbook rather than something to sink your teeth into intellectually, but it's clearly a very useful book to have on one's shelf.

This is a delightful and well-argued account of how government may be endogenised in economic analysis. The author would have us believe that government as an actor is in the same category as a consumer or an entrepreneur. Basu bravely questions conventional wisdom about assumptions held regarding institutions in economic analysis. Ambitiously titled "A Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics", the best part of this book are the author's numerous examples to show how economists have a poor understanding of motives, powerbases and collective action. There are just a few typographical errors (for instance the missing curve I in Figure 9.2 on page 207). However, what stops me from giving it five-star rating is that the book does have some conceptual infirmities (for instance, the author confuses the notion of government with the concept of nation-state, collective action is insufficiently explored, unconscious group processes not hypothesised at all, the terms lawful and legal are occasionally used interchangeably etc.). The most intellectually stimulating part of the book is the appendix that takes us through a hilarious account of the Fallacy of the Ignored Bridging Function. This was not an easy book to walk off from and I am glad to have finished it at one sitting. The author's clarity of expression and his sense of humour make this a book to remember and to recommend to others.

This book is filled with more errors than one can count right from the beginning when the authors thank their "waves" to equations not unit balancing and mislabeled figures. I have given up correcting it with red pen. I just don't use it, I don't trust it.

I feel I have wasted my money. I wish I just bought the B&W Steam Book. That is a fantastic book.

I read this book with hopes of some insight to operation experiences. The design explanations are very good for boiler and burner engineering.