The purpose of this paper is to survey the key ideas which have played a role in the development of the theory of smooth unimodal maps in the 1990s so as to provide a starting point for more detailed study. Most papers underlying this survey are distinguished by great technical complexity; we have therefore attempted to extract their essence and present it in a way accessible to a non-specialist. For further study we compiled a long list of original references. Another goal of this paper is to present the multi-directional process in which ideas flowed and developed, placed in a historical order.