Qualitative and quantitative researchers have come to rely on the interview as a basic method of data gathering, whether with a single subject or thousands. Fontana and Prokos (both sociology, U. of Nevada, Las Vegas) concentrate on methods of interviewing a range of subjects in research relating to social science, but their ideas also translate to research in liberal and fine arts. They describe how interviewing has become ubiquitous in Western society and why, techniques of structured and group interviewing, unstructured interviewing, including understanding the language and culture of the respondents, locating informants, gaining trust, and collecting empirical material, and describe types of unstructured interviewing such as oral history and postmodern interviewing with attention to grounded theory and gender. They consider the ethics of interviewing, new trends such as empathetic interviewing and the interview as a negotiated accomplishment and give future directions in formal, group, unstructured and electronic interviewing. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)