Book reviews in this article:J. Twigg, K. Atkin and C. Perring, Carers and Services: a Review of ResearchC. Perring, J. Twigg and K. Atkin, Families Caring for People Diagnosed as Mentally III: the Literature ReexaminedP. Abbott and C. Wallace (eds.). The Sociology of the Caring Professions.M. Bury and J. Macnicol (eds.). Aspects of Ageing. Essays on Social Policy and Old Age.A. Jamieson and R. Illsley (eds.). Contrasting European Policies for the Care of Older People.Nikolas Rose, Governing the Soul: The shaping ofthe private self.Helen Roberts (ed.). Women's Health Counts.L.A. Hoff, Battered Women as Survivors.A. Birenbaum, In the Shadow of Medicine: Remaking the Division of Labour in Health Care.A. de Swaan, In Care of the State: Health Care, Education and Welfare in Europe and the USA in the Modern Era.Pamela Abbott and Geoff Payne (eds.). New Directiotis in the Sociology of Health.Cecil G. Helman, Culture, Health and Illness. An Introduction for Health Professionals.D. Porter and R. Porter, Patient's Progress: doctors and doctoring in eighteenth‐century England.R. Porter, Health for Sale: quackery and medicine in EnglandStephen Lyng, Holistic Health and Biomedical Medicine. A Countersystem AnalysisT. Booth, K. Simons and W. Booth, Outward Bound. Relocation and community care for people with learning difficulties.E.B. Aekerman, Health Care in the Parisian Countryside 1800–1914.Scott‐Samuel A. (ed.). Total Participation, Total Health. Reinventing the Peckham Health Centre for the 1990sJoe Sim, Medical Power in Prisons. The Prison Medical Service in England 1774–1989.