Postel, Kerboul, Evrard, Courpied, and their coauthors take a completely objective attitude in describing the progress achieved in total hip replace­ ment with reference to their own experience over the last 20 years. They avoid any triumphant fanfares, but not because of Pascal's dictum: "Do you want people to speak well of you? Don't do it yourself. " Rather, they know that other surgeons, like themselves, are more concerned with effi­ ciency than with laurels, and want that is, new ideas based on sufficiently wide experience and analyzed in a strict and uncompromising manner. In addition, surgeons are particularly anxious for in-depth study of the pr,ob­ lems, complications, and failures encountered as well as for indications as to how these can be avoided and corrected. This book is sure to satisfy sur­ geons on both these counts. It is the exciting and almost incredible prod­ uct of the work and the immense progress that have taken place in the 15 years since I retired. The spirit behind this work has inspired it from the start. It is characterized by a determination to take constant study of the results as the only guide in matters of indications and technique, and the authors insisted on a system of documentation whose purpose (and perhaps merit) was to facilitate comparison both of the preoperative functional state and of the final re­ sult; they have also kept an open mind for interesting new insights from whatever quarter they might arise.