A masterful work. How to Think Like a Realist: A Methodology for Social Science consists of three parts, on the important but disputed concepts of causality, objectivity, and generality. Each part includes brief episodes filled with examples, insight, scholarship, and wit. Accessible enough for undergraduates but rich enough for seasoned scholars, this book deserves widespread attention. Even if you disagree in places, you will be engaged, enlightened, and entertained. -- Melvin M. Mark, The Pennsylvania State University (retired), US This book is clear. It is vibrant. And it is brilliant. What it has to say matters to philosophers, to practitioners and to those who are affected by the social science we practice. -- Nancy Cartwright, Durham University, UK and University of California at San Diego, US Accessible, thoughtful, provocative and entertaining, this book is a must read for every student in social sciences or human services, every policy maker and program designer, every commissioner - and every practitioner - of research or evaluation. It is a very readable introduction to the fundamental understandings without which our work may lead others astray. -- Gill Westhorp, Charles Darwin University, Australia Realist methodology is blossoming, and realist studies are burgeoning. This is no flash in the pan. Ray Pawsons work is both the product and the source of this intellectual evolution. The book makes the proposition that realist principles underpin science in all its guises and makes tiny, tentative steps in tracing the common realist tenets. If he is correct, we will be reading this manifesto for many years to come. -- Frans L. Leeuw, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
