This book makes an important contribution to two fields of ecclesiastical history between the years 1922 and 1965: understanding the development of Catholic schools and understanding the development of Catholic religious orders. The period is defined by the beginning of the pontificate of Pius xi and by the end of the Second Vatican Council. The scope of the study is specifically defined by the English-speaking world of Australia and New Zealand, the United States of America, Ireland and England and Wales, although the review of earlier work embraces bilingual Canada and areas of Europe. The main thesis of the book is that Catholic schooling was shaped during this period in the interest of recruiting new members to religious orders and of safeguarding those who had already joined against temptations that might have encouraged them to leave. This thesis is supported by the four themes with which the four key chapters are concerned. Chapter iii analyses the practices used by the religious orders in their schools to encourage the young to join their ranks, including the role of ‘recruiting agents’. By promoting the ideals of the religious life such teachers were both actively recruiting new members and affirming their own vocation. Chapter iv analyses the implications of what the author describes as the ‘authoritarianism’ of the Catholic school during this period. On the one hand the authoritarian regimen prepared pupils for life within a religious order. On the other hand, such an environment protected the commitment of those who moved daily outside the cloister to teach. The school became an extension of the cloister. Chapter v analyses ways in which the religious orders marginalised lay people, and particularly lay teachers, in their schools. This strategy was interpreted both as enhancing pupils' image of the religious life and as protecting the self-image of the religious teachers. Chapter vi focuses on what the author describes as ‘the Church's hostility to co-education and sex education’. This strategy is interpreted both as protecting the religious teachers from contemplating and discussing sexuality and sexual relationships and as ensuring that pupils ‘would not become generally relaxed with members of the opposite sex’ or ‘became sufficiently curious about the sexual act’. Throughout the four themes are well documented by source materials. Finally, chapter vii turns attention (in a less sustained manner) to the wider relationship between Catholic schools and the Catholic community during this period and to what the author describes as the ‘dark side’ of Catholic education: child abuse both physical and sexual. Overall the book has been produced to a high standard with relatively few errors.