This well-researched book examines the relationship between the Habsburg state and the Hungarian bishops from the late seventeenth century to the death of Joseph ii. Forged in the age of confessionalism, the alliance of crown and Catholic Church was still working in the first half of the eighteenth century. It broke down in the second, according to Bahlcke, because most of the Hungarian bishops had kept their old baroque ideals and could not follow Austrian absolutism, working in the interests of a confessionally neutral raison d'état, towards a more open and tolerant Catholic Enlightenment. All this happened in a period when the state launched an offensive against all those feudal remains which limited its absolute power – and that included ecclesiastical privilege. Open conflict at the diet of 1764–5 brought the Hungarian bishops into the camp of the opposition. Defending both their political position as a group, and safeguarding the autonomy of the Church, they became the most important allies of Rome in the Habsburg Monarchy and they also became a bastion of the old constitution at the end of the eighteenth century. The most interesting part of this book sketches the social history, and provides statistical analyses of individual careers, of the Hungarian bishops, both diocesan and elected, the first research of its kind (pp. 132–50). Another novelty of the book is chapter v, which brings Prussia and the factor of foreign politics into the picture of the relationship between the Habsburg rulers and the Protestant minority in Hungary. In more general terms part iv, treating the second half of the eighteenth century, is the best part of the book. It is, however, uncertain if the case of Croatia and that of the Banat can bridge a wide chronological gap in the text. The statement that 1750 constitutes a dividing line between cooperation and confrontation may be called into question given that the royal decree concerning the rights of Protestants in Hungary (the Carolina Resolutio, 1731) had already brought divisions into the relationship between Habsburgs and the Hungarian Catholic Church; and open conflict did not erupt until 1764. It is not just that change was gradual, as it almost always is, but also that an analysis of the politics of the diet shows the whole upper house, including the bishops, losing their political pre-eminence to the lower house, composed mainly of the gentry, in the middle of the eighteenth century: thus while the bishops had counted as as formidable supporters of the Habsburgs at the beginning of the century, later, as opponents, they were much less significant. Since enlightened policy towards the Church is usually connected with the name of Joseph ii (1780–90), it is a pity that the book deals only briefly with the post-1782 period. This published version of Joachim Bahlcke's Habilitationschrift (2001) is dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian historian István György Tóth (1956–2005), and is supplemented by summaries in Hungarian, Croatian and Slovak. This reminds us of that great drawback in the study of Central European history: the common problems and indeed the common past of its peoples is complicated by linguistic complexity. There is hardly anyone as competent in the field of its early modern history as Joachim Bahlcke: following his detailed studies of Silesia and Bohemia, he has mastered Hungarian to present a fresh analysis of the sources and a clear-cut thesis on a hitherto neglected group. His book will no doubt inspire further research.