This book re-evaluates debates on education, modernity, and social change in India through reference to the strategies of educated un/under-employed young men in western Uttar Pradesh. "The authors of this book do a magnicent job of analyzing the cultural and political terrain in which the potential benets of education are mediated by social and cultural capital, within highly politicized contexts and uneven economies. Degrees Without Freedom? is a model of excellent research and writing, speaking to critical debates in a number of elds, and I recommend it very highly."