As a longtime reader and contributor to NVSQ, I have been occupied for quite a while with trying to select what book is worthy of a review in NVSQ. So many new books cover aspects of the nonprofit sector or voluntary action, or both, that the list of books alone would take the entire space allocated for book reviews. Rarely do I encounter a book that is unknown by most scholars in the field yet...

This book review asserts that Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement (”Cops Across Borders”) is the first book to attempt a systematic analysis of the role that the United States has played in the field of international law enforcement. For that reason, the book represents a major step forward in understanding this rapidly evolving area. While many people...

Hohwy’s book consists of three parts: an introduction to predictive coding and a predictive account of interactions with the world and of the mind. In the first part, Hohwy discusses the foundations of causal inferences as a mechanism of perception (Ch1). Subsequently, he discusses prediction error minimalisation (Ch2) and the role of errors, context and the precision of prediction in this proc...

There is an increasing amount of content relating to the history of medicine appearing online and many of our journals are adding 'media' or 'digital humanities' review sections. Yet, unlike book reviews, it remains unclear how scholars should go about writing a peer-review of a website. This review of Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine makes an attempt to outline the criteria b...

T was a gray Baltimore morning in April 1942 when I first met George Rosen in the Johns Hopkins Institute. We 'clicked' immediately. Being both devotees of medical history we talked for hours almost exclusively about our adored subject; strangely enough neither about our careers (as it behooves colleagues) nor about world politics, though at that moment it breathed heavily down all our necks. I...

Editor’s Note: In the June 2005 issue we published a book review—written by Daniel M. Brooks—of Currassows and Related Birds by J. Delacour and D. Amadon (2004), with an updated chapter by J. del Hoyo and A. Motis. This was an unsolicited review sent to us by Dr. Brooks. After publication we learned that the same or very similar reviews by Dr. Brooks have appeared in at least four other journal...

This introduction to a symposium on the centennial of Edward L. Thorndike’s 1898 monograph on animal intelligence briefly considers the origins of his law of effect and the influence of Darwin’s selectionism. It also provides the background for an unfinished book review by William W. Cumming of a biography of Thorndike. The review places in historical context Thorndike’s position both on psycho...

This paper uses detailed weekly data on sales of hardcover fiction books to evaluate the impact of New York Times book reviews on sales. In order to weigh the relative propensity of reviews to inform and to persuade, the analysis utilizes a measure of review opinion obtained through a systematic reading of each review. The estimates indicate that in the case of book reviews, any publicity is go...