Substantial thanks are due to van Dijk for assembling his two-volume “Discourse studies” collection, which introduces this multi-disciplinary field to a wide readership. In this first volume, which focuses on theory and method, linguists, semioticians, communication theorists, and social and cognitive psychologists from the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, the UK, the US, and Australia have contributed to van Dijk's project of promoting dialog and collaboration in the development of discourse studies as an emerging field. Each chapter offers a useful introduction to the literature in its area and an exposition of theoretical perspectives, usually illustrated by one or more examples of text analysis. The volume is a treasure for newcomers to discourse studies, or to discourse analysis methodologies; in addition, it challenges specialists to connect their work more fully with approaches from other perspectives.