Anna Duszak (ed.), Us and others: Social identities across languages, discourses, cultures. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003. Pp 517. Hb $162.

This interesting volume, edited and introduced by Anna Duszak, offers a range of perspectives on the construction of identity, particularly the formation and roles of contrasting reference groups, the “us and others” of the title. Disciplines in which the contributing studies are based include social anthropology, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, intercultural communication studies, cognitive linguistics, translation studies, neurolinguistics, neuropsychology, and social psychology. Contributing scholars present accounts of studies conducted in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. The 23 chapters are grouped under the headings “Discourses in space,” “Discourses in polyphony,” “Discourses of transition,” “Discourses of fear,” “Discourses of challenge,” and “Discourses through suppression.”