McNamara's book on language testing is part of a series that introduces various areas of language study to readers with little or no formal training in linguistics. Like the other books in the series, it provides a broad overview of trends and issues in the field rather than going into technical depth in any one narrow area. The intent of this approach is to make the material accessible to a wide audience and to provide a “bigger picture” perspective that would render deeper consideration of particular language testing issues more meaningful. McNamara succeeds in making his contribution to the series comprehensible, while at the same time making it challenging and provocative on both intellectual and social levels.