This book is translated from the original Dutch version, published in 2011, which won the Arenberg Prize for European History and Culture. The prize is awarded biennially to “the best work that sheds new light on Europe's history.” In this well-researched study, Lamberts states at the outset that he will examine, over a century and a half, the conservative “battle with liberalism” (13). In its various forms, conservatism, the author argues, has throughout this period struggled to resist the liberal, statist view of the state as essentially all-powerful, one whose authority extends into every aspect of society. Conservatives, instead, recognize what they consider alternative sources of authority: “natural, pre-political groupings, such as family bonds, local communities, social class, professional organizations and church communities” that predated the state and thus deserved “a wide degree of autonomy” (14). In this struggle, conservatives allied themselves with a reinvigorated Catholic Church and, by the end of this period, had managed to have their views integrated into the post-1945 European political order, which was “characterized by an interplay between a well-organized civil society and a liberal democratic state structure” (14).

Lamberts traces these developments by looking at the careers of various elite figures, but the book's main focus is the life and career of Gustav von Blome (1829–1906)—Metternich's grandson and mentee. The author uses the story of Blome to examine conservatism's transition from its earlier, openly aristocratic form into “sociopolitical Catholicism, which would evolve into the Christian Democracy of today” (15). It is a very interesting story, and one Lamberts tells with great success. The author states that he is the first scholar to use the private correspondence between Blome and a much older French aristocrat, which began in September 1853 and continued over the subsequent thirteen years. These letters are a crucial part of the book's source base.

The author traces Blome's early career as an Austrian diplomat in the 1850s and 1860s, a period during which he did not pursue any particular ideological causes, in great detail. After the 1867 Ausgleich that created constitutional Austria-Hungary, Blome, who had refused new diplomatic appointments, was appointed to the Herrenhaus, where he fought above all against liberal demands to reduce the power of the Church. He considered this fight more important than Austria's struggle to remain an influential great power. This fight “formed the beginning of a Catholic opposition movement that would gradually gain strength” (124). He left diplomacy behind completely and moved to Rome in 1868, after the passage of the laws that restricted the Church's power in Austria.

Most of the rest of the book traces Blome's involvement in the conservative Catholic political movement, whose focus was on maintaining the Papacy's “autonomy and international status” (248). This movement ultimately failed in terms of its highest priority. However, Lamberts argues that it laid the groundwork for what he calls the “social” Catholic politics of the twentieth century, one that grew out of the ideas of people like Blome and that focused, more broadly, on maintaining the Catholic Church's role as an independent force in society, mediating against the power of the state.

Regarding further developments in Austria during Blome's life, the “traditional Catholic elites and the upper clergy had difficulty” with the triumph of Karl Lueger and the Christian Social Party due to “their vehement anti-Semitism, their democratic stance, and their stress on the social aspect rather than the religious” (296). When the papacy backed the Christian Socials, this was obviously a disappointment to these traditional conservative groups. Ultimately, Blome “regarded anti-Semites as valuable allies” and “felt more sympathy for Lueger” than for nobles he considered “pure individualists” who “principally wanted to protect the moneyed interests” (296). Blome celebrated Lueger's electoral triumph in 1897. The author admits that Blome shared the antisemitism of the Christian Socials at least somewhat, as part of his antiliberalism, anticapitalism, and proclerical positions. He promoted a corporatist idea, but one according to which the corporations would be “a buffer against the state,” as opposed to what became the Fascist version of corporatism, in which corporations became an arm of the state (308).

The book's conclusion discusses West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and draws connections from Blome's Catholic conservatism through the interwar and post–World War II periods. Lamberts expresses strong sympathies for the overall aims of the Christian Democratic parties after 1945. The author contends that Blome “helped lay the basis for the policy that [Adenauer] himself had shaped … the aims and achievements of the German chancellor were, in a number of respects, in line with Blome's aspirations and efforts” (320). This seems like somewhat of a stretch, but given the caveats in the statement, the matter is certainly open to debate.

Lamberts has done a terrific job writing a biography of Blome and has ably supplemented it with discussions of the broader events and movements in which he played a role. The author has dug deeply and widely into primary sources—including Blome's private papers—and read widely in the archives of almost a dozen countries. Lamberts demonstrates a masterful understanding of the political developments he examined.

The title of the book and the prologue claim that the book will do something more ambitious than tell Blome's story. I would argue that it does not fully live up to those claims—something that can be said about many a monograph. This book will be of great interest to any student of European Catholic conservative politics in the late nineteenth century, and those looking to examine the ideological roots of post-1945 Christian Democratic parties.