Architectural history can seem a rather narrow and arid affair. This attractive and intelligent book pushes the boundaries of traditional art history, and seeks to engage with the work of other disciplines, in a way that will immediately appeal to historians. The introduction makes clear that for Howard the key concept that underpins his interpretation of the post-Reformation architectural scene in England is not revolution, the abandonment of the past, but ‘transformation’. Chapter one exemplifies this theme by demonstrating how in the ‘re-tooling of the monastic legacy’ (p. 32) the older religious buildings were not simply swept away, but exerted a powerful and persistent influence on the (largely) secular structures that replaced them. The principal focus here is on the country house, but in the chapter that follows it is the town that attracts attention, particularly the town hall, where ‘again it was the links with the past that proved the most fruitful and stable in the formation of new urban identities in this period’ (p. 93). Chapter three takes a novel and thought-provoking look at the ‘language of architecture’, exploring the ways in which an increasingly literate society used a variety of texts – theoretical works, statutes and proclamations, contracts, topographical writing and poetry – to negotiate its relationship with the built environment. Patrons are the subject of chapter four, where from a series of elite case-studies the key themes which emerge are the heavy and increasing financial costs of investment in high-status architecture, the need to balance conservative against innovative tendencies, and ‘the setting of private luxury against civic responsibility’ (p. 125). The final chapter concentrates on visual representations of architectural forms, such as in plans, maps, drawings and paintings, suggesting a highly significant shift in perception, detectable in images of townscape and country house, from a fragmentary to a more holistic view of built form. As one might expect from a Yale University Press production, this is a visually pleasing book with a profusion of excellent illustrations. An engaging style of writing adds to this appeal; at the same time the scholarly and interdisciplinary character of the book is evidenced in the rich referencing and bibliography. The title of the book suggests a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of the period's architecture, whereas this relatively short book is in reality more a series of linked essays. Urban historians will be pleased to see the chapter on the town landscape, but readers of this journal will be surprised that there is no balancing chapter on the rural landscape. It is true that the elite country house receives a good deal of attention, but there is little on the homes of more modest town and country dwellers. The chapter on patrons is welcome, but its presence necessarily invites a similar chapter on the building industry. Not then a grand survey, but this is an enjoyable, stimulating and informed volume that adds to the growing body of scholarship that bridges the gap between architectural history and history.