Although mentioned nowhere in the description, this book contains only women's shoes (no men's shoes are included). Also, of the hundreds of shoes pictured and described, only about 35 are from pre-1900. This came as a bit of a disappointment to me, since I'm researching 19th century men's shoes. There is nothing here that meets my needs! There are precious few books available on 19th century shoes, however, so I bought this one on the off chance it would be useful. Oh well!That said, if your interest is in 20th century women's shoes, you will find much here to engage you. The majority of the shoes pictured are from the author's personal collection. She seems to take more of a collector's rather than a scholarly researcher's point of view, so don't expect that level of detail. The book contains no bibliography or references, so I have limited confidence in her stated terminology or occasional historical tidbits. Although the description mentions that it contains information about shoe styles and construction, this is very sparse.If I had paid more attention, I would have seen that this was a Schiffer Book... "for Designers and Collectors" (not researchers).