Book Review: Comparative Education: The Construction of a Field, by Maria Manzon (2011), 395pp. ISBN: 978-988-1785-26-8, Hong Kong: Springer and the Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

The book under review is not for the faint-hearted nor for someone looking for a clear introduction to comparative education, what it is and what its parameters are. The expectation is that readers are already familiar with much of the existing literature and many of the arguments that have bedevilled the subject almost since its inception, but certainly from the 1960s onwards. Readers must also be able to decipher and understand certain sociological and philosophical styles of language and jargon, especially those of Foucault and Bourdieu. However those comments are in no way meant to disparage what is both an original and a valuable addition to the literature on comparative education.