Scholarly handbooks play several key roles in their disciplines. First and foremost, they reflect recent changes in the field as well as classic works that have survived those changes. In this sense, all handbooks present their editors’ and authors’ best judgments about what is most important to know in the field at the time of publication. But many handbooks also influence the fields that they
report on. Scholars—especially younger ones—look to them for sources of information and inspiration to guide their own work. While taking stock of the shape of its field, a handbook also shapes the stock of ideas that will define the field’s future. It serves both as an indicator and as a generator, a pool of received knowledge and a pool for spawning new insight.