Paying to see live performances of extra-European peoples was enormously popular during the nineteenth century. For a fee – sometimes as little as a shilling – Britons could encounter representatives from various populations of the different continents of the world. The majority of these people came from colonized territories and were exploited by Europeans for personal, political and scientific gains. The practice of displaying humans is an important part of the legacies of natural history and anthropology. Moreover, it connects with Britain's imperial aspirations of the nineteenth century. It is against this backdrop that Sadiah Qureshi's Peoples on Parade tells the story of human diversity exhibits during the Victorian age. Beautifully written, and rich in detail, it should form the basis of all future investigations into the early history of human sciences in Britain.

The book is divided into three main sections, each of which examines a much-neglected aspect of what the author calls ‘nineteenth-century living foreign people exhibits’. It attends closely to the processes involved in promoting, managing, producing and interpreting these shows. Section One discusses the significance of the street as a site of knowledge that shaped nineteenth-century understandings of human diversity. Chapter 1 is probably the most important part of the book, because it redefines our understanding of nineteenth-century foreign living people shows. In particular, Qureshi examines the writings of Victorian urban spectators, such as Henry Mayhew, who would travel the streets of London to observe the different human varieties lining the pathways of the British capital. By focusing on the urban poor, Qureshi is breaking away from traditional historical narratives on the history of human diversity that prioritize extra-European peoples from remote islands as the sole subjects of ethnological and anthropological investigations. This shift in focus is a refreshing change in the historiography that is greatly welcomed. It opens up many new questions about the significance of human variation studies inside Europe during the nineteenth century. Moreover, Qureshi's analysis of the promotional materials of nineteenth-century human diversity shows aligns her work with some of the recent scholarship on the popularization of science, Victorian visual culture and the history of observational practices within the natural sciences.

In Section Two of Qureshi's book the focus changes and she looks at the shows themselves. She examines the managers who organized the performances and the methods by which entertainers were recruited, and makes some analysis of how visitors were to interpret the exhibits. Once again, Qureshi identifies some of the more underdeveloped areas of the secondary literature on Victorian human diversity shows. For instance, Qureshi argues rather convincingly that managers occupied a key role in shaping the audiences' understandings of topics relating to race. This is a theme that has been largely ignored in the secondary literature. For the most part the emphasis is on managers' promotional techniques and economic gains. In Section Three of Peoples on Parade, Qureshi examines the relationship between living foreign people exhibits and the scientific study of races. She looks in detail at the role these shows played in educating researchers and the public about human variation, and she considers some important but often overlooked ethnological and anthropological figures, including Robert Gordon Latham, James Hunt and John Conolly.

There is much to be admired about Qureshi's detailed and sensitive look at the history of nineteenth-century human diversity shows. However, because of the delicate nature of many of the themes discussed in this book, including colonialism, slavery, race studies and imperial warfare, Qureshi often struggles when using the categories of her historical actors. As a result, there are instances where her characterization of extra-European peoples seems presentist in tone. It is a difficult task writing about the history of extra-European peoples. It is one that is engulfed in imperialistic rhetoric and nineteenth-century racist views. Although Qureshi makes a conscientious attempt to investigate compassionately the history of exploited peoples, it is clear that there is more work to be done with regard to descriptive terminology and the history of race. Nevertheless, these concerns set aside, Peoples on Parade is a fantastic book that sheds new light on important historical themes. The work will appeal to scholars interested in imperialism, history of race, Victorian popularizers of science and nineteenth-century visual culture. There can be little doubt that it will feature on most course reading lists relating to the history of nineteenth-century science.