William Marshall's 1978 PhD thesis has long been admired as an excellent study of the dioceses of Hereford and Oxford in the century after the Restoration. Hitherto it has only been available as a bound thesis or in summary in articles in Midland History and The National Church in Local Perspective. Now it is available as a book. Marshall's analysis of the two dioceses confirms the optimist view of the eighteenth-century Church of England. He concludes that the Church in the two dioceses was ‘very much alive, even vigorous’ (p. 209). He rests this judgement on detailed consideration of the bishops, clergy, administration, courts and parish life. His work is especially strong on church-building, which was clearly flourishing in the two dioceses in the period. Only in the areas of welfare and aspects of worship (both of which bear traces of some anachronistic judgements) does Marshall's optimism flag. These opinions are secured by Marshall's impressive use of extensive archival and manuscript sources. The book also contains a short note on recusancy and dissent, and ten appendices giving data on the dioceses. Thus far, Marshall's book is a very useful addition to the literature on the eighteenth-century Church and continues the back-filling of local studies which support the on-going revision of the subject. The only criticism is that, although modest attempts have been made to update it, the book nevertheless remains a work of the 1970s. Only five items in the bibliography post-date the thesis, including the ODNB, of which extensive use has been made. Marshall adopts a largely institutional approach, which, though valuable, neglects some of the issues which have been considered by other studies in the last thirty years. Much work has been done in the intervening years beyond the Church as an institution, and it is a pity that this book does not incorporate the most recent discussions of the national context and perhaps also comparable local studies. The idea of the ‘long eighteenth century’ is also neglected. Nevertheless, in making accessible an outstanding revisionist work, Marshall and Carnegie Publishing have done ecclesiastical history a great service.