At the Protestant Reformation in Europe many practices seen as Catholic and unbiblical were rejected, among them missionary activity, the religious life and the expectation of miraculous healing. In subsequent centuries each of these practices was gradually reclaimed, and this study is a significant addition to our understanding of how divine healing developed in transatlantic Protestantism during the nineteenth century. There is already a considerable literature on this subject in the North American context but by mining significant archives that have become more readily accessible Robinson opens up the European story too. The slow acceptance in Protestantism of the possibility of the miraculous is plotted through Pietist roots in Lutheranism and then the ministry of early Methodists, not least John Wesley himself. This reveals a side of Wesley's ministry and theology not always noted: to be sure Wesley was guarded about charismatic phenomena but we are shown, for example, how he acknowledged what he saw as answers to prayer for healing. The desire of some Methodists to retain a supernatural framework was a major factor in the splitting of Methodism as others in the movement sought respectability in the context of the fear of revolution toward the end of the eighteenth century. One of Robinson's aims is to tell the story through the biographies of the nineteenth-century exponents of divine healing. Through this approach he succeeds in bringing to life the circumstances, motives, and also the doubts of people prominent in promoting divine healing. This provides insight into the varied theological and personal backgrounds of its exponents, a reminder of the complexity of sources which were taken up and of the variety of claims which were made. Some certainly claimed that healing was possible ‘by faith alone’ but others held more nuanced views, and most modified their teaching during their lives in the light of experience and debate. Though the book's title might suggest a tight temporal framework (1830–90) this acts more as a focus than a straitjacket and the historical flow of events and people is well recognised on either side of these dates. A follow-up volume is hinted at, to cover the period 1890–1930, by which time Pentecostal denominations were becoming well established; on the basis of this book a second volume would be a very welcome addition to our understanding of the development of the practice of divine healing in western Protestantism. In the preface the author sets out for himself four ambitious objectives: theological, historical, biographical and to link the Holiness movement with early Pentecostalism. In this he has largely succeeded, though the theological and biblical discussions of divine healing are perhaps not quite as strong as the other elements. This is a key book for those concerned better to understand the origins of divine healing movements in the twentieth century and the present day.