Scott Kenworthy has written an exceptionally well-researched, well-documented, and clear history of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery from 1825 to 1938. The first such volume in English, it also surpasses Russian works on the subject. Encyclopedic rather than narrative, The heart of Russia relies on a rich variety of published and archival sources. Kenworthy deserves particular praise for the thoroughness, breadth and depth of archival study that led to this volume. The book introduces Russia's most important monastery in a generally chronological way, offering narratives to complement the more data-heavy sections of the book. Nestled in a prospographic study of the monks, for example, Kenworthy also details the life of Archimandrite Toviia (Tsymbal) who rose from the peasantry to lead the brotherhood (pp. 152ff.). Likewise, the author recounts the story of one pilgrim – a certain Ivan Shmelev – in the context of a dense analysis of pilgrims and pilgrimage (pp. 189ff.). Though largely a social history, The heart of Russia does investigate the spiritual life of the monks, especially Trinity-Sergius' role in the revival of hesychasm. Kenworthy, like other recent scholars of Russian Orthodoxy, chooses not to stop his work in 1917. Instead, he analyses the monastery's fate through the tumultuous early years of the Soviet period. A remarkable set of sources helps Kenworthy to describe how the monks lived and died during the Russian Revolution. It also documents the dramatic events related to the opening of St Sergius' tomb as part of the Bolsheviks’ campaign to discredit Orthodox Christianity. The epilogue to The heart of Russia brings the reader up to the present. Now, as in the nineteenth century, the monks of Trinity-Sergius must negotiate between the desire to live in the ‘desert’ of monastic withdrawal and service to their society's sacred needs.