The field of debate over the value of postmodernism for the practice ofhistory by now has become littered with the remains of so many allegedauthorities that even General Douglas Haig might quail before such a prospect.Cynicism is perhaps the best defense against the assaults being launched fromboth sides of this new no man's land. However, every so often, onecontribution to such ritual bloodlettings acts as a flare to reveal theimportance of the issues at stake at the same time as it cogently analyzes thearguments and assumptions underlying the controversy. Of the books and articlesunder review here, perhaps none will be of greater importance to historians thanRichard Price's chapter on “Postmodernism as Theory andHistory” in John Belchem's and Neville Kirk's edited volume,Languages of Labour, which does just that.