Few periods in Irish history are more vulnerable to a teleological reading than the Restoration, sandwiched as it was between two major conquests and subsequent settlements which operated according to totalising confessional principles. One of the great merits of this short book is its multi-faceted attempt to restore contingency to what was a most insecure and turbulent space of time, particularly between 1660 and 1667. There are six major chapters to the book which are largely thematically organised. The overall concern is to highlight the synergies between high and low politics, the power of discourse and its importance in establishing ownership of the historical record and right to political power, and the complex relationship between the writings and spoken words of politicians and actors in Irish localities. In its mobilisation of sources, the book is reminiscent of David Finnegan's recent publications, although interestingly he is one of the authors with which it takes issue. It also distinguishes itself sharply from Anne Creighton's work which it sees as underplaying the significance of Catholic discourse as a phenomenon, particularly in a context when it was by no means apparent that the restored regime would indeed preside over the consolidation of the Cromwellian plantation. One of the book's consistent strategies is to pay careful attention to the content and context of a series of highly structured documents such as Orrery's Irish colours display'd and An answer to a scandalous letter, the anonymous A narrative of the settlement and sale of Ireland, Peter Walsh's A letter desiring a just and mercifull regard of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland, Nicholas French's The unkinde desertor and Sir William Domville's ‘Disquisition’. MacCormack's handling of this material is subtle and reflective. The analysis of Domville, for instance, offers a persuasive alternative to the traditional perception as articulated by Aidan Clarke and J. G Simms (although there is a surprising lack of consideration of Patrick Darcy's ‘Argument’ in the discussion of seventeenth-century tracts on the subject of English parliamentary jurisdiction over Ireland: pp. 121–2). Because of the largely thematic nature of the book, it is not really a text for neophytes on the Restoration period and while it highlights certain important linkages between English and Irish politics during these years, the real density of the book lies in its exposition of Irish attitudes and crises rather than the interrelationship between the various Stuart monarchies. Nevertheless, within that frame of reference, the book offers a perceptive and often challenging perspective on a crucial span of Irish history.