Bernard Capp's latest book tackles a familiar historical subject – the Puritan campaign for reformation of manners in the 1650s – but, unlike many treatments of ‘godly rule’ in the Interregnum, he is as keen to emphasise success as failure. His work covers Cromwellian campaigns against sexual immorality, drunkenness, swearing and popular entertainments (including the now-forgotten pastimes of ‘dog-tossing’ and ‘cock-throwing’). However, Capp stresses that these initiatives were driven by the broader goal of advancing ‘godly reformation’. In this respect there were some notable achievements – ordinances restricting travel and work on the Sabbath took hold: Richard Flecknoe, travelling through Isleworth one Sunday in 1656, found the village green, once the site of ‘harmless sports and play’, deserted. Capp acknowledges that ‘godly reformation’ faced many obstacles including the poor financial state of the Church and opposition to the reform programme not only from ‘scandalous’ or ‘malignant’ clergy but also from the sects, especially the Quakers, and from recalcitrant parishioners. On the other hand, vigorous catechising efforts and the evangelical and charitable work of individual ministers demonstrated that Puritans had neither given in in the face of resistance nor limited their campaigns to only the ‘godly’ themselves. The book as a whole is a pleasure to read – lucidly written, perhaps its greatest strength is the richness of the historical detail, especially from legal records, that Capp musters to support his argument. (See, for one example, the letter he quotes from Nehemiah Wallington to his minister complaining about the soporific effect of his preaching: ‘I fear some may sleep and lie snorting in their sins for many years and scarce ever be awakened by so sweet preaching as yours is.’) Capp argues convincingly that the Interregnum reformation of manners, if only partially successful, should no longer be seen as an aberration. It followed on from Elizabethan initiatives and chimed with not only ‘godly’ desires for further reformation but also the culture of civic humanism which had developed in England's town and cities. The key difference was that during the 1650s government shared the aspirations of local reformers. Even in this respect, however, the ‘culture wars’ of the 1650s were not unique. As Capp notes, the aftermath of the revolution of 1688 saw the political centre unite once again with grassroots movements for moral reform in calling for action against adultery, fornication and the profanation of the Sabbath.