Nicola McLelland: German through English Eyes: A History of Language Teaching and Learning in Britain 1500-2000 (Fremdsprachen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 15).

This is a comprehensive overview of the development of German language teaching in Britain, a learned, detailed, fascinating tour through five centuries. To take first its readership: beyond the sub-set of German teachers who are interested in the history of language teaching in their subject – and the ‘massive response’ to the author’s radio broadcast suggests that this may not be as limited a group as one might think – where else will a book as well written as this find readers? Two potential fields come to mind: British social history and gender studies. But both groups have to wait until Chapter 6 before their interests are catered for, and the Gender section there omits the most obvious feature in the experience of today’s language teachers at universities – the tendency of women students to predominate over men – in favour of issues such as gender stereotyping.