Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

For Master's students only, 17 Feb 2004
I bought this book because it is one of the few of its kind that outlines the key elements of a PhD proposal. Despite the fact that most UK universities require a proposal with applications for a doctorate, virtually no PhD guides give you any perspectives on how to write it. I was pretty happy to see "writing your proposal" on the table of contents. But I was pretty sorry to see the author doesn't tell you much more than a good few university prospectuses I have seen.

This book is great for those without postgraduate experience, who are embarking on their Master's degree, particularly if it is an MPhil or another research degree. It outlines the key issues you need to consider as you think about how to conceptualise and structure your research, and what direction to give it. It also provides helpful thinking on the 'intangibles' of research: getting on with your supervisor, overcoming cultural barriers, etc.

However, if you have completed a Master's degree and, like me, are embarking on a PhD, you are better off looking elsewhere for guidance about your methods. This book poses far more questions than it provides answers or guidance. Most of these questions are ones which any doctoral candidate who looks for this type of book has already asked themselves. The chapters on choosing your methodology are hopeless - very, very basic. I was surprised to see this was published by Palgrave.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

For Master's students only, 17 Feb 2004
I bought this book because it is one of the few of its kind that outlines the key elements of a PhD proposal. Despite the fact that most UK universities require a proposal with applications for a doctorate, virtually no PhD guides give you any perspectives on how to write it. I was pretty happy to see "writing your proposal" on the table of contents. But I was pretty sorry to see the author doesn't tell you much more than a good few university prospectuses I have seen.

This book is great for those without postgraduate experience, who are embarking on their Master's degree, particularly if it is an MPhil or another research degree. It outlines the key issues you need to consider as you think about how to conceptualise and structure your research, and what direction to give it. It also provides helpful thinking on the 'intangibles' of research: getting on with your supervisor, overcoming cultural barriers, etc.

However, if you have completed a Master's degree and, like me, are embarking on a PhD, you are better off looking elsewhere for guidance about your methods. This book poses far more questions than it provides answers or guidance. Most of these questions are ones which any doctoral candidate who looks for this type of book has already asked themselves. The chapters on choosing your methodology are hopeless - very, very basic. I was surprised to see this was published by Palgrave.

The Write Stuff, 25 Apr 2008
An excellent sourcebook for the would-be decipherer of old manuscript documents. The book first of all reviews the letters of the alphabet, and gives examples of the form/shape of each one. In addition, many commonly-used abbreviations, Latin terms etc are demonstrated.

The second part of the book gives a selection of documents from varying periods, each one presented in the form of an image of the original text with its accompanying transcription. This is invaluable, as it is possible to pick out "standard" phrases etc and identify them in one's own documents.

Using the two parts in conjunction will prove enormously helpful.I'm currently ploughing my way through an early 17th century will which, at first glance, looks like it was written in Arabic! I had made a start at cracking the text but was struggling until I got Ms Marshall's book. I'm pleased to say that I've made considerable headway since.

Well worth the price!

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

For Master's students only, 17 Feb 2004
I bought this book because it is one of the few of its kind that outlines the key elements of a PhD proposal. Despite the fact that most UK universities require a proposal with applications for a doctorate, virtually no PhD guides give you any perspectives on how to write it. I was pretty happy to see "writing your proposal" on the table of contents. But I was pretty sorry to see the author doesn't tell you much more than a good few university prospectuses I have seen.

This book is great for those without postgraduate experience, who are embarking on their Master's degree, particularly if it is an MPhil or another research degree. It outlines the key issues you need to consider as you think about how to conceptualise and structure your research, and what direction to give it. It also provides helpful thinking on the 'intangibles' of research: getting on with your supervisor, overcoming cultural barriers, etc.

However, if you have completed a Master's degree and, like me, are embarking on a PhD, you are better off looking elsewhere for guidance about your methods. This book poses far more questions than it provides answers or guidance. Most of these questions are ones which any doctoral candidate who looks for this type of book has already asked themselves. The chapters on choosing your methodology are hopeless - very, very basic. I was surprised to see this was published by Palgrave.

The Write Stuff, 25 Apr 2008
An excellent sourcebook for the would-be decipherer of old manuscript documents. The book first of all reviews the letters of the alphabet, and gives examples of the form/shape of each one. In addition, many commonly-used abbreviations, Latin terms etc are demonstrated.

The second part of the book gives a selection of documents from varying periods, each one presented in the form of an image of the original text with its accompanying transcription. This is invaluable, as it is possible to pick out "standard" phrases etc and identify them in one's own documents.

Using the two parts in conjunction will prove enormously helpful.I'm currently ploughing my way through an early 17th century will which, at first glance, looks like it was written in Arabic! I had made a start at cracking the text but was struggling until I got Ms Marshall's book. I'm pleased to say that I've made considerable headway since.

Well worth the price!

A good hand book for researchers using qualitative methods, 04 Oct 2001
I found this book invaluable in my post graduate studies and research work. Jennifer Mason addresses both practical elements of qualitative research and more importantly the epistemological and theoretical approach which is so often neglected in this type of book. There are good examples throughout and main points are emphasised in boxes in every chapter.
Beginning with a introductory chapter about what qualitative research is and should be, subsequent chapters deal with the research process in an intuitive order, from 'planning and designing qualitative research', to 'producing analysis and explanations which are convincing'.
It is not a long book but it is thorough, well written, and I would recommend it.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

For Master's students only, 17 Feb 2004
I bought this book because it is one of the few of its kind that outlines the key elements of a PhD proposal. Despite the fact that most UK universities require a proposal with applications for a doctorate, virtually no PhD guides give you any perspectives on how to write it. I was pretty happy to see "writing your proposal" on the table of contents. But I was pretty sorry to see the author doesn't tell you much more than a good few university prospectuses I have seen.

This book is great for those without postgraduate experience, who are embarking on their Master's degree, particularly if it is an MPhil or another research degree. It outlines the key issues you need to consider as you think about how to conceptualise and structure your research, and what direction to give it. It also provides helpful thinking on the 'intangibles' of research: getting on with your supervisor, overcoming cultural barriers, etc.

However, if you have completed a Master's degree and, like me, are embarking on a PhD, you are better off looking elsewhere for guidance about your methods. This book poses far more questions than it provides answers or guidance. Most of these questions are ones which any doctoral candidate who looks for this type of book has already asked themselves. The chapters on choosing your methodology are hopeless - very, very basic. I was surprised to see this was published by Palgrave.

The Write Stuff, 25 Apr 2008
An excellent sourcebook for the would-be decipherer of old manuscript documents. The book first of all reviews the letters of the alphabet, and gives examples of the form/shape of each one. In addition, many commonly-used abbreviations, Latin terms etc are demonstrated.

The second part of the book gives a selection of documents from varying periods, each one presented in the form of an image of the original text with its accompanying transcription. This is invaluable, as it is possible to pick out "standard" phrases etc and identify them in one's own documents.

Using the two parts in conjunction will prove enormously helpful.I'm currently ploughing my way through an early 17th century will which, at first glance, looks like it was written in Arabic! I had made a start at cracking the text but was struggling until I got Ms Marshall's book. I'm pleased to say that I've made considerable headway since.

Well worth the price!

A good hand book for researchers using qualitative methods, 04 Oct 2001
I found this book invaluable in my post graduate studies and research work. Jennifer Mason addresses both practical elements of qualitative research and more importantly the epistemological and theoretical approach which is so often neglected in this type of book. There are good examples throughout and main points are emphasised in boxes in every chapter.
Beginning with a introductory chapter about what qualitative research is and should be, subsequent chapters deal with the research process in an intuitive order, from 'planning and designing qualitative research', to 'producing analysis and explanations which are convincing'.
It is not a long book but it is thorough, well written, and I would recommend it.

Authoritative text, 09 Jul 2008
This is an extremely thorough textbook. I like the fact that it covers theory and practice within a coherent overall conception of qualitative research. in particular, the case studies - which draw in part on the author'sown research projects - balance the more abstract passages and give a real inside view of what it's like to do research (much more than any of the simpler introductions I've read). I like too the suggested activities, which are for the most part very straightforward, and the suggestions for further reading, which are very detailed. Overall, I found this book synthesised a tremendous amount of information and argument and so does a lot of gard work on the reader's behalf.

A heavy-going awkward book , useful reference only, 19 Nov 2006
This is a core text on one of my research masters courses but we loathe it. Recommended as the best overall in-depth guide to the variety of methods and techniques on the market, I can only say there is a gaping hole for a more readable text. The introductory chapters in particular are inaccessible: Flick is so keen to give a broad overview that I struggled to make sense of anything. It appears he translated the book himself from the German text and the clunky language, poor sentence-structure and multi-hyphenated-made-up-words make you wonder how it passed through any editorial stages.

My lecturer does agree that it is badly written, and has accepted my criticism of the text. He says the earlier editions were actually better. Skim-reading a lot there are some useful chapters later on in the book and this may be one to borrow from the library if you require in depth detail on a particular topic not covered by the more readable introductions to this field. I recommend buying one of them, not this one, though it may look impressive on a bibliography.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review!, 08 Jan 2007
I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

Excellent!, 01 Aug 2003
A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too, 12 Feb 2002
The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

Magnificent guide to literature review, 07 May 2001
Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.

Fantastic, 16 Jun 2007
I read this book in two sittings. The first while waiting in a hotel reception for my friend Darren. He was fairly late but I had plenty of time to kill. One of the bots at reception, a tall greek from Corfu, saw me waiting and handed me the book, "I have committed it all to memory", "you can keep it" he vocoded. I sat down and read a few chapters before I started to think I'd told Darren the wrong moon. He must have gone to Europa. I couldn't wait another hour for contact with Europa, and had been told by Darren not to use the telecom relay networks around Jupiter. I stopped reading and caught the Ganymede/Europa bus from outside the hotel. After about ten minutes of listening entertained to the bus' weird babble of tongues, I got a call from Darren, he said he'd contracted Liver Flees while sightseeing on Jupiter's rocky core and was currently resting at the health centre on Europa. His voice was strangely restrained, I wasn't sure whether he was joking, though I remembered from a Jessop Attenborough programme, that Liver Flees need hydrogen to survive, and since the last of Jupiter's hydrogen had been tapped 130 years ago, i figured he was just protecting his cover, maybe the space masons were with him.

Sat next to me on the bus, was a mother and child of a familiar Mandarin-speaking alien race - The Squit. These clothe-less people are descendants of what on earth we call `birds', The mother had what looked like bird feathers for hair and the child was young enough to still have the fingers of one arm attached the wing, the other arm was free and flailing. The mother was very attractive but the child was annoying. It was telling me story after story, all of which ending in "and I didn't even cry". I tried to think of something to say to end the onslaught yet still maintain my chances with the mother. In desperation I asked the mother "what's your favourite seed". I really wish I hadn't. She seized the opportunity to recite a litany of edible seeds from far and wide. Stumbling to think of a top top favourite seed, she looked up at the ceiling in thought. This gave me time to catch sight of her flange and busters, the joyous vision of overpowering my torment. Before I could completed SWOT analysis, she looked at me and carried on with her jabbering fusillade of seed talk. In total awe I looked back up at her beautiful beak, clasped it shut and kissed her on her beady black eye.

A remarkable reference book, 22 Sep 2004
This book is remarkable for many reasons. It covers the entire cannon of greek myths and legends in a refreshing and illuminating way. Graves cross-indexes the entire book with a kind of "internet-link hypertext" (this book was written WAY before the WWW) that can lead to surprising connections. And yes, he does present his ingenious "key" to understanding the "true" meanings "hidden" behind these stories, but he had the decency to separate these from the more generally accepted "University course" interpretations. And, as even critical reviewers have pointed out, even if you disagree with what he has to say, he was an extremely well read and scholarly man with an astonishing knack for rendering the past vivid and meaningful. His opinions are always thought provoking and worth reading...

The myths are great but the commentary is horrible, 30 Dec 2003
This is a fine scholarly work collecting together all the Greek myths from various sources (Hesiod, Homer, Apollodorus, Pindar, etc.) and retelling them in a highly accessible manner. However, for every page of Greek myth there are two pages of Graves's commentary and here is where the problem lies. It's all sacred queen and sacrificial king nonsense, the sort of prehistoric fantasy that he went on about at tedious length in the 'White Goddess'. Lacking documentary evidence, he feels free to impose whatever fantasy he likes on prehistoric European society and, at heart, Graves was nothing more than a new-age mystic. Nonetheless, buried among the dross there is real scholarship which makes you feel that you should read the commentary in case you miss something genuinely illuminating. It does make it damned hard going, though.

An Exhaustive Text for Advanced Students of Greek Mythology, 13 Apr 2003
Robert Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS falls between the Victorian bombast of Bulfinch and the popular style of Edith Hamilton, less stylistically intimidating than the former and more scholarly than the latter. Originally published as a two volume set in 1955 with author revisions in 1957 and 1960, this single volume text does not abridge the original text but merely confines it to a single binding.

One's reaction to THE GREEK MYTHS will depend to some extent on one's purpose in acquiring it. This is an exhaustive collection of Greek mythology that far outstrips any other modern anthology that I have encountered, including myths both better known and extremely obscure. Each myth is presented in concise, graceful prose, and where possible Graves includes genealogies of the characters and major variations of each myth; an interpretive essay also follows each myth.

While Graves' retelling of the myths themselves have been widely praised, his interpretations of the myths have been somewhat criticized--and justly so. Graves tends to see incarnations of the "White Goddess" and the "Sacrificial King" in every third story; more dangerously, he tends to tie the myths to historical events in a highly speculative way. While this does not undercut the interest of his interpretations, it does hold a number of traps for the casual reader, who may assume that Graves' essays offer standard, scholastically unbiased interpretations based on proven historical events.

For myself, I use Graves' THE GREEK MYTHS as both reference and pleasure-reading, and I enjoy it a great deal; it is an indispensable purchase for any one with a serious interest in Greek mythology or for any one who must frequently reference the same for scholarly purposes, and I strongly recommend it to them. At the same time, however, I would hesitate to recommend it to readers who have not previously been exposed to Greek mythology or who wish only a general knowledge of the major Greek myths; in such cases I would instead recommend Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY: TIMELESS TALES OF GODS AND HEROES.

Mindblowing, 12 Sep 2001
It takes a while to get through it but believe me, its worth it. Robert Graves gives an insight to the lives and the beliefs of the greeks all those years ago and puts all the confusing stories into perspective and Summarises the symbolisum of the stories.

For Master's students only, 17 Feb 2004
I bought this book because it is one of the few of its kind that outlines the key elements of a PhD proposal. Despite the fact that most UK universities require a proposal with applications for a doctorate, virtually no PhD guides give you any perspectives on how to write it. I was pretty happy to see "writing your proposal" on the table of contents. But I was pretty sorry to see the author doesn't tell you much more than a good few university prospectuses I have seen.

This book is great for those without postgraduate experience, who are embarking on their Master's degree, particularly if it is an MPhil or another research degree. It outlines the key issues you need to consider as you think about how to conceptualise and structure your research, and what direction to give it. It also provides helpful thinking on the 'intangibles' of research: getting on with your supervisor, overcoming cultural barriers, etc.

However, if you have completed a Master's degree and, like me, are embarking on a PhD, you are better off looking elsewhere for guidance about your methods. This book poses far more questions than it provides answers or guidance. Most of these questions are ones which any doctoral candidate who looks for this type of book has already asked themselves. The chapters on choosing your methodology are hopeless - very, very basic. I was surprised to see this was published by Palgrave.

The Write Stuff, 25 Apr 2008
An excellent sourcebook for the would-be decipherer of old manuscript documents. The book first of all reviews the letters of the alphabet, and gives examples of the form/shape of each one. In addition, many commonly-used abbreviations, Latin terms etc are demonstrated.

The second part of the book gives a selection of documents from varying periods, each one presented in the form of an image of the original text with its accompanying transcription. This is invaluable, as it is possible to pick out "standard" phrases etc and identify them in one's own documents.

Using the two parts in conjunction will prove enormously helpful.I'm currently ploughing my way through an early 17th century will which, at first glance, looks like it was written in Arabic! I had made a start at cracking the text but was struggling until I got Ms Marshall's book. I'm pleased to say that I've made considerable headway since.

Well worth the price!

A good hand book for researchers using qualitative methods, 04 Oct 2001
I found this book invaluable in my post graduate studies and research work. Jennifer Mason addresses both practical elements of qualitative research and more importantly the epistemological and theoretical approach which is so often neglected in this type of book. There are good examples throughout and main points are emphasised in boxes in every chapter.
Beginning with a introductory chapter about what qualitative research is and should be, subsequent chapters deal with the research process in an intuitive order, from 'planning and designing qualitative research', to 'producing analysis and explanations which are convincing'.
It is not a long book but it is thorough, well written, and I would recommend it.

Authoritative text, 09 Jul 2008
This is an extremely thorough textbook. I like the fact that it covers theory and practice within a coherent overall conception of qualitative research. in particular, the case studies - which draw in part on the author'sown research projects - balance the more abstract passages and give a real inside view of what it's like to do research (much more than any of the simpler introductions I've read). I like too the suggested activities, which are for the most part very straightforward, and the suggestions for further reading, which are very detailed. Overall, I found this book synthesised a tremendous amount of information and argument and so does a lot of gard work on the reader's behalf.

A heavy-going awkward book , useful reference only, 19 Nov 2006
This is a core text on one of my research masters courses but we loathe it. Recommended as the best overall in-depth guide to the variety of methods and techniques on the market, I can only say there is a gaping hole for a more readable text. The introductory chapters in particular are inaccessible: Flick is so keen to give a broad overview that I struggled to make sense of anything. It appears he translated the book himself from the German text and the clunky language, poor sentence-structure and multi-hyphenated-made-up-words make you wonder how it passed through any editorial stages.

My lecturer does agree that it is badly written, and has accepted my criticism of the text. He says the earlier editions were actually better. Skim-reading a lot there are some useful chapters later on in the book and this may be one to borrow from the library if you require in depth detail on a particular topic not covered by the more readable introductions to this field. I recommend buying one of them, not this one, though it may look impressive on a bibliography.

Interpretive researcher should read this.., 05 Aug 2008
This was the first time I had found heuristic research as a notion and after reading it I realised this was the core of my work as an interpretive researcher in business and management. Professor Moustakas writes with clarity and understanding of the needs of the reader attempting to get to the heart of what consistutes the lived meaningful experience of other human beings as well as ourselves. It seems once again we have an example of how tremendous ideas in one area of knowledge do not 'travel' to other domains. This book would suit researchers and dissertation students in business and management who have interpretivist leanings as it will ensure that you have the tools to undertake a more rigorous approach to your study of the human condition in the workplace.

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this., 04 Aug 2007
I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

A brilliant book on writing a research proj