This volume is a selection of papers presented at the international conference on Translation & Censorship From the 18th Century to the Present Day held in Lisbon in November 2006 Although censorship in Spain under Franco dictatorship has already been thoroughly studied the Portuguese situation under Salazar & Caetano has been so far almost ignored by the academic research This is then an attempt to start filling this gap At the same time new case studies about the Spanish context are presented thus contributing to a critical view of two Iberian dictatorial regimes However other geographical & time contexts are also included former dictatorships such as Brazil & Communist Czechoslovakia; present day countries with very strict censoring apparatus such as China or more subtle censorial mechanisms as Turkey & Ukraine Specific situations of past centuries are given some attention the reception of Ovid in Portugal the translation of English narrative fiction into Spanish in the 18th century the translation of children literature in Victorian England & the emergence of the picaresque novel in Portugal in the 19th century Other forms of censorship namely self-censorship are studied in this volume as well " The book fits in one of the most innovative fields of research in translation studies ie the study of social & political constraints on translation processes & translation functions More specifically the concept of censorship is crucial to the understanding of these constraints especially in spatio-temporal settings where translation exhibits conflicts between what is acceptable for & what is prohibited by a given culture For that reason detailed descriptive research is needed in as many situations as possible It gives an excellent view on the complex mechanisms of censorship with regard to translation within a large number of modern European & non European cultures In addition to articles devoted to cases dealing with China Brazil Great-Britain Turkey Ukraine or Czechoslovakia Spain & Portugal occupy a prominent role As a whole the volume marks an important step forward in our growing understanding of the role of socio-political factors for the development & changes of translation policies I highly recommend the publication" Prof dr Lieven D'hulst Professor of Translation Studies at KULeuven (Belgium)