Daniel Jordan Smith presents an exceptional work full of insights and appreciation of Nigerian culture. The content is enriched by the years he spent working there, his marriage to a Nigerian woman and his evident affinity with the Nigerian people. Smith's main aim is to reflect on popular Nigerian sentiment towards corruption, but also to explore how entrenched corrupt practices have become in society. The book focuses on two main elements; how Nigeria is as much a “culture of corruption” as it is an “anti-corruption culture” (p. 6). The standard discourse that exists among Nigerians themselves and the rest of the world is that Nigeria has a history of debilitating corruption. Smith's work therefore attracts a diverse audience. The portrayal of this corruption in the media is fundamentally flawed; first of all because the roots of the term originate from a Western conceptualization that for too long has been applied improperly, thus preserving stereotypes and generalizations. To counter this portrayal of Nigerians, Smith provides a sensitive account of the complicated system they find themselves having to navigate every day. He uses a significant amount of stories, anecdotes and interviews from his time in Nigeria, creating a narrative that is accessible to the reader. Chapters one to five introduce different forms of corruption at all levels of society, while the remaining two chapters focus on social radicality. attempts to fight corruption such as vigilante justice. The famous email scam is the first introduction to corruption, the common expression is 419, which originates from the reference to fraud in the Nigerian Penal Code. 419 evolved to mean all corrupt activity in society; to the municipalities......half paper......change for the better. The future is something left to the reader's imagination. Another lacking feature was greater interaction between Smith's in-depth studies alongside other literature in the field. For someone unfamiliar with corruption in Nigeria this was a fantastic introduction to its concepts, but it also meant that readers were unsure where Smith's arguments about Nigeria's culture of corruption fit into the rest of the academic literature. Despite this, overall Smith has managed to create an educational and thought-provoking read. Works Cited Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1999. A Corruption-Based Moral Economy in Africa? Journal of Modern African Studies 37 (1): 25-52. Smith, Daniel J. 2008. A culture of corruption: everyday deception and popular discontent in Nigeria. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.