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31 Pol. Theory 3 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/ptxa31 and id is 1 raw text is: FROM THE REVIEW EDITOR W hat books get reviewed in Political Theory and by whom? I try to bal- ance the Review section so it performs its responsibility to political theory authors, reviewing as many books as possible fairly and informatively, while also guiding Political Theory's readers to the full array of approaches and offerings currently available to political theorists at the several centers and margins of our sometimes hotly contested field. A perfectly good book might not get reviewed in Political Theory: (1) if the book is not germane to political theory, broadly defined; (2) if I cannot, after three to four tries, find someone who will agree to review the book (books like this I leave in limbo for a long while, up to a year, in the hope that they may turn out to fit into some future review essay); or (3) if the book's publication escapes my notice: many presses now send only catalogues, no books-browsing through 10's of catalogues, I am more susceptible to the human error of missing something than when opening a book mailer. I have been experimenting with several formats, the single book reviews, the pairs (where two together might stage a possible debate in the field), and the review essay, which best allows the reviewer to develop a position on the state of the literature. The review essay format also gives reviewers the most room for initiative. Occasionally, review essay authors will ask to add a text to their list in order to help focus the essay they want to write; they may also want to drop an assigned book for the same reason. On the excellent advice of my predecessor, Peter Euben, I tend to let reviewable books pile up for three to five months at a time so that possible pairings or groupings for review essays have a chance to make themselves apparent. We might get five new books on Hannah Arendt over a four-month period, making for an obvious review essay assignment. Invariably, however, the sixth book on Arendt will arrive the day after the latest Arendt review essay has been approved for publication. What happens to that sixth book? In addition to being subject to the above- stated criteria, the unfortunate sixth book on Arendt may have to pass a higher bar: It will likely be reviewed if (1) it is important or eventful in some way (say, if the author is John Rawls), but not so important that it will certainly be reviewed in the Sunday Times, or (2) if it is a first book by someone who is junior faculty, especially (but not only) if that person is appointed as a politi- POLITICAL THEORY, Vol. 31 No. 1, February 2003 3-5 DOI: 10.1177/0090591702239436 © 2003 Sage Publications 3

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