Books by scientists about science usually fall into one of twodistinct types: technical or popularizations. The technical categoryincludes texts, collections, and monographs where, in physics atleast, equations and data are the meat. In popular books, by contrast,it is said that each equation halves the readership: these books arewritten to be intelligible to the non-scientist. Nuclear Fusion: halfa century of magnetic confinement fusion research falls into neitherof these categories. Its authors, C M Braams and P E Stott, arephysicists whose distinguished careers span most of the pasthalf-century of fusion research. They write with both a first handexperience of the history of the field and an intimate knowledge ofthe science. The book might be described as a scientifichistory. Equations are unhesitatingly included where they arenecessary to describe the physics, but the main thread of the book isthe description of how fusion research evolved. Introductions to thephysics of various topics are described briefly in `boxes' alongsidethe historical narrative. To a plasma physicist these are helpful andoften insightful reminders of the fundamentals. I think that anyprofessional physicist could benefit from these pithy technicalsummaries. But clearly they are not intended as more than pointers toa systematic understanding of plasma physics; and for a non-physicistthey are doubtless incomprehensible.In giving a physicist's view of fusion history, the authors arecareful to document their sources, with twenty seven pages ofreferences. This scholarly approach greatly enhances the value of thework in describing the progress and achievements of fusion research.It also provides a much-needed reminder, to those who speak lightlyabout `innovation', of the tremendous breadth of ideas for plasmaconfinement that have already been studied. But it means that the bookreads somewhat like a review article, and definitely not like earlierfusion popularizations. By comparison Robin Herman's Fusion: thesearch for endless energy (CUP 1990) stresses the human interestangle by using many quotes from interviews, and Ken Fowler's Thefusion quest (Johns Hopkins 1997) is far more in the manner ofpersonal recollections.While lacking these populist touches, Braams and Stott's book givesmature and balanced opinions about the reasons and influences,scientific and social, that have governed fusion's development. Theyoutline the roots of nuclear energy and plasma physics leading to theclassification of fusion research and its declassification in 1958 atGeneva. Continuing from the profusion of ideas disclosed at that time,they deal in succeeding chapters with open systems, pulsed toroidalconfigurations and other alternatives, stellarators, andtokamaks. Each configuration is traced from its earliest ideas to itsmodern embodiment-or its demise. In succeeding chapters are described thedevelopment of important techniques and scientific understanding, from the 1980s on, especially in application to the big tokamaks. The concluding chapter, which is remarkably up to date,discusses the steps to a fusion reactor and the history and status ofITER.As a student considering plasma fusion as a possiblecareer, I recall reading the book by Artsimovich and it seeming thebest available introduction to the scientific history of the field,although even then it was hopelessly out of date. Now, in this newwork by Braams and Stott, I have a book to give to students today for athoroughly modern introduction-not to the technical mastery ofplasma physics, for which there are many introductory texts, but tothe background of where fusion research has come from. This broaderperspective is both fascinating and essential to our maturingdiscipline; so I warmly recommend this book to all readers of PlasmaPhysics and Controlled Fusion.I H Hutchinson