This book is an extract of eleven complete separately authored chapters from a larger handbook, Pfeffermann and Rao (2009a), on the design, data-collection and preprocessing of sample surveys. The larger handbook, cited below as volume 29A, along with a second handbook volume 29B (Pfeffermann and Rao 2009b) on inferential and statistical methodology of sample surveys, together give a broad coverage of the state of the art in survey sampling, with detailed discussion and references by influential contributors on many survey-sampling topics about which there are no standard textbooks. However, as is generally true of handbooks, the articles reflect the preferences and styles of the individual contributors. So some chapters are expository and tutorial, giving careful explanations of underlying ideas, while others briefly touch on (almost) all of the major sub-topics in their area, giving terminology and extensive references to the literature but little in the way of critical review. What these handbooks, 29A and the volume under review, do very successfully is to provide historical overviews of design-based survey practice, and summaries of issues arising in sample surveys across many different statistical agencies and countries and types of applications.