Lieven D’hulst’s wide-ranging collection of essays on historical approaches to translation and translation studies, some of which are revised versions of articles previously published, is a brilliant demonstration of what D’hulst identifies as the three primary challenges all contemporary historians face. First, ideas, traditions and practices should be regarded as discontinuous, multidirectional, intersecting influences and exchanges. Second, historians must be vigilant about registering the diversity of theories, methodologies and forms so as to counteract both the homogenizing forces of globalization and the tendency of dominant languages to impose historical paradigms designed to serve their interests. Third, given this diversity, together with the succession of opposing intellectual traditions from which our current theories and practices derive, historians must define concepts and methodologies that will enable them to structure their reflection within a clearly delineated historical perspective that eschews reductionism.