Freya Sierhuis analyses the interactive dynamic between politics and literature in the Dutch Republic. Sierhuis is a lecturer in the department of English literature at the University of York, but the book originated in her PhD research at the European University Institute in Florence. It is based on painstaking and detailed research and yet is bold in its claim: the political culture of the Dutch Republic was marked by controversy. She thus takes issue with the dominant paradigm in Dutch historiography which emphasises consensus. The focus of the book is on the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609–21) between the Dutch Republic and Spain. Between 1610 and 1618 a conflict developed that started off as a theological dispute on predestination, but morphed into a constitutional conflict and almost ended in civil war until the leader of the Arminian Party, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, was executed and the Synod of Dordt restored Calvinist orthodoxy. The political ramifications have been well researched, but Sierhuis focuses on the religious dimension. The thrust of her argument is that theology did matter, and that it generated a vast literature that reflected upon the nature of religious as well as political issues. Indeed, literature itself shaped and reshaped the political landscape of the Dutch Republic. In six more or less chronological chapters Sierhuis shows how this was the case. Her claim that literature, politics and theology are intimately intertwined and are continually being reshaped through mutual interaction is stimulating and appropriate. Some minor comments are in place. The text is sometimes rather dense and contains typos. Also, Sierhuis's attempt to integrate political, religious and literary history is laudable, but to suggest that the ‘religious controversy alone’ (p. 1) brought the country to the brink of war is not warranted and overstates the case – exciting though the claim must sound to scholars working on ecclesiastical history. This does not alter the fact that this is a very good book that offers stimulus to any scholar interested in literature, theology or politics, whether in the early modern or modern age.