IN SEARCH OF THE INDO-EUROPEANS is essential reading for those interested in the people who spoke the ancestor of most tongues of Europe and western Asia. While scholars have carefully reconstructed a proto-language, the identity of its speakers and their geographical origin remain a mystery, and J.P. Mallory shows what is currently thought in the field.

本书是作者的经典之作，在写作时，作者并没有拘守注重文献考据、归纳索隐的朴学的旧路，他非常重视现代社会科学的理论和方法，以之开拓出研究工作的新局面。唯物史观在这里不是外加的标签或先验的教条，而是有机地表现在对于具体历史现象的剖析和说明之中。这就保证了本书的浓厚理论色彩，而理论思想的深邃正是本书论述深刻的重要原因。