432 pp. According to renowned social psychologist Kurt Lewin,'Nothing is as practical as a good theory', and there are many from which to choose. This new book highlights a number of emerging theories of health promotion. The book attempts to provide understanding of new developments in the ®elds of social and behavioral health sciences. The book achieves this through well-detailed descriptions of theory and practical applications. A major strength of the book is inclusion of a range of

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... and concepts relevant to health education and health promotion practice. The theories come from a broad range of disciplines and are described through a variety of case studies incorporating a breadth of health issues (Radon Testing, HIV, Teen Driving, Nutrition, Child Immunization, General Health, Safe Sex behaviors, Tobacco). Individual chapters offer a good discussion of stage issues (Weinstein and Sandman), in-depth discussion of how communication-based theory applies to behavior change (Petty, Barden and Wheeler), and application of motivational theory to HIV prevention (e.g. Fisher and Fisher). The challenge to the reader, of course, is to ®gure out which theory is most useful for a given problem and how then to apply it. As with any edited volume, the chapters are variable in length and format, but most are well written and informative. In some cases critical issues are not adequately addressed, making it dif®cult for the reader to make informed decisions about the utility and applicability of the theory. Generally, very little information is provided on approaches to the measurement of constructs. Subjective versus objective measures and qualitative versus quantitative techniques require differ-ent capacities, resources and affect research design. Only some chapters provide a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the theory, and few discuss ethical implications, which should be an implicit concern when considering theory application. The aforementioned limitations notwithstanding, this book also offers theoretical underpinnings of how existing vehicles for delivering public health interventions work (coalitions, Butterfoos and Kegler; and community capacity, Norton, McLeroy, Burdine, Felix and Dorsey). Several theoretical applications of social approaches are described, including theories using existing structures (parenting, Simons-Morton and Hartos; and natural community helpers, Eng and Parker) and the creating of new structures (coalitions, Butterfoos and Kegler; and community capacity, Norton et al.) to impact health. Several of these theories are interrelated (e.g. community capacity, social capital, community coalitions, etc.). Only time (and empirical investigations) will tell if they are indeed separate or components of a larger integrated model. Prevention marketing (although limited in its title; Kennedy and Crosby) is one example of a logical integration of complementary approaches. Relatedly, several chapters argue for a broader, multilevel approach to health promotion (Norton et al.; Kreuter and Lezin; Hovell, Wahlgren and Gehrman) due to the ®nite impact of individualbased behavior change theories. In fact, in the conclusion the editors note that this compilation of emerging theories're¯ects a common movement toward less reliance on individual-based approaches and greater use of theories that account for social and contextual in¯uences' (p. 387). This re¯ects current trends in the health behavior change arena [e.g. (Sallis and Owen, 1997)]; however, the individual cannot be ignored as they are the target impacted by the social and contextual environmental constructs/changes and are the ultimate performers of the health behavior. This book increases the breadth and completes the required reading for graduate-level classes dealing with aspects of health behavior change and BOOK REVIEWS