very informative, has alot of tips. A phenomenological approach to in-depth interviewing.

I was fortunate to take Irv's class at UMass. His book is the most comprehensive guide to interviewing, and I have used his method in my doctoral thesis and in multiple academic papers. Irv probably has exploitation issues with his method being used to collect consumer data, but the three-stage interview method is extremely effective in exploring consumption experiences.

I was fortunate to take Irv's class at UMass. His book is the most comprehensive guide to interviewing, and I have used his method in my doctoral thesis and in multiple academic papers. Irv probably has exploitation issues with his method being used to collect consumer data, but the three-stage interview method is extremely effective in exploring consumption experiences.

For the novice interviewer, this is a very informative book. It is clear and precise and gives a decent history of interviewing and the ethics that go with the territory. Just remember that this is only one interviewing book. The author describes his method used at his university and acknowledges other methods. Over all very good. It helped me a great deal for my masters work.

This book does a very nice job of outlining the interview process as well as all of the issues around informed consent. The book also is excellent with the whole issue of developing a profile for the person being interviewed. This was probably one of the finer elements of Seidman's effort.

I was disappointed with one thing. The reason I bought the book was that I was interested in reading more ideas on how to coalesce a number of interviews into a coherent whole. This was a weak area of the "Interviewing as Qualitative Research..." It was certainly addressed but Seidman's points related to this topic were not helpful. The book would, however, probably be helpful to someone that is just beginning to use interviews.

Overall, it is a good book. It was just weak in the main area where I was hoping to pick up some new ways to approach the data.

Qualititative research is far more than asking a prescribed list of questions. However, the interview is key and core to learning what the researcher wants to know.

"Interviewing as Qualitative Research" by Irving Seidman is a concise but informative book explaining the whole process clearly. In fact, the strength of the book is not so much the content -- other books say the same things -- but the presentation. Seidman planned the book well, and subjected it to careful editing and organization.

Despite its short length, it is well-outlined, with a complete contents area, index, and eight-page reference section.

Chapters include (each has several subsections listed below):
* Why Interview?
* A Structure For In-Depth Phenomonologicsl Interviewing
* Proposing Research: From Mind To Paper To Action
* Establishing Access To, Making Contact With, And Selecting Participants
* Affirming Informed Consent
* Technique Isn't Everything, But It Is A Lot
* Interviewing As A Relationship
* Analyzing, Interpreting, And Sharing Interview Material

I fully recommend "Interviewing as Qualitative Research" by Irving Seidman.

Anthony Trendl

Well written, engaging, and intelligent. I use this book to teach two different graduate classes--it's great!