This is a book of signposts, of key turning points, of Gregory Bateson's "knots tied in a handkerchief". Each article reproduced in this volume, edited by leading qualitative methodologists Lincoln and Denzin, represents one of these turning points in qualitative research; a revolution in the way research is conceptualized and practiced. Authority, representation, legitimation, ethics, methods, presentation, even the purpose of qualitative research, have all been considered within these articles. Bringing together the work of scholars from Haraway to Geertz, Mead to Mishler, Clifford to Conquergood, Laurel Richardson and Miles Richardson, the editors are able to trace the changes in the discipline over the past five decades. If aims to be a key text book for training the next generation of scholars in the history and trajectory of qualitative research.