Timothy Richard stands as one of the most significant and well-studied of the nineteenth-century China missionaries. He set the scene for other British missionaries and he was one of the first to engage in social welfare activities for which the China missionaries are famous. Through the production of a new book on Richard, Andrew Kaiser has provided an engaging, thought-provoking work that should provide a model for reevaluating the pioneer missionaries.

Studies of Richard can be traced back to the 1940s with more scholarly essays emerging in the 1960s and 1970s. While Kaiser's study focuses on similar time periods to these other studies, he makes greater use of primary sources that Chinese scholars do not have access to and other scholars did not engage with due to the nature and length of their articles. Kaiser, therefore, provides a more in-depth picture of the early life and work, and of Richard's intellectual development between 1870 and 1891 with the inclusion of his diaries and family correspondence. This is by far some of the more useful information, for it provides greater insight into the missionary mind than the regular letters to the home board. Although the majority of the primary sources are from the missionary archives, Kaiser is also careful to include Chinese sources that provide the book with a broader perspective on the events and period that Richard was working in.

The book is organised in a logical way in three major parts focusing on the historical development of Richard's engagement with China. It begins with his early life in Wales and his early work as an evangelist in Shandong. It then moves on to his famine relief work, one of his most famous social welfare activities. Kaiser finishes with the cooperation and conflict that Richard encountered within the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and the China Inland Mission with regard to his philosophy of mission. Chapter iv in particular appears to be a key to unlocking these ideas when Kaiser leads the reader through the ‘learning’ experiences of Richard during the early China period. Kaiser shows that Richard did not simply focus on the methods of other missionaries but engaged with all aspects of Chinese society that encouraged his approach to spreading Christianity in China. Although the book retains a dissertation feel with the breakdown of each chapter into numbered sections, Kaiser's writing style makes the book accessible to all readers. The author is also keen to include significant sections on other leading missionaries of the time that set the scene for Richard's actions and his development in China.

Overall, Andrew Kaiser has produced a significant study on one of the most important pioneer missionaries in the China field. His focus on Richard's mind and his relationship with other missionaries and missionary groups provides an important insight into the trials that many endured in the field. While scholars of the missionary movement will be the primary audience for such a book, those interested in missionary methodology would gain much from this work.