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Rating: 
Summary: the most boring book in creation!
Review: This is a big, thick, very boring book from a man who nevertheless knows his subject well. It's basically a history of how the "human sciences" (sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, etc.) got started and developed over the years. There are no graphs or pictures; it's all narrative.
Alas! This is a aggravatingly stuffy slog, although, as I say, you can't complain about its thoroughness. The problem, in my view, is neither the subject matter nor the approach: it's Smith's writing style. If you don't actually have the book in front of you, it's possible to convince yourself that it might be worth your time. No. So dry and lifeless is the writing that the book's other merits (e.g., the versatility and erudition with which the different disciplines are interwoven) never have a chance to see the light of day.
True, I was expecting a lot from it: the development of the social sciences is a very fecund subject; I guess I was hoping it would be as engaging, as riveting, and as thought-provoking as, for example, one of Boorstin's outings.
And what a shame, too, since this could have been written so much better. In a way, I'm hoping hope that somebody here will rush to this book's defense, since the author obviously put a ton of work into it. But even so, that wouldn't make it a better read.
In short: a fertile subject, but one that, sadly, still awaits a magisterial treatment.
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