In writing this book Campbell has succeeded in the daunting task of crafting a detailed, up-to-date and accessible history of one of the most revered translations of the Bible, from its predecessor versions to the present day. Now being widely celebrated in its four-hundredth anniversary year, the King James Version of the Bible has a complex and fascinating history in its native England and also in America and many other parts of the English-speaking world. Scholarship on the English Bible has grown significantly in recent years, with major contributions in social and religious history, postcolonial and African-American studies, as well as women's studies and of course literary criticism and textual history. Campbell's work is informed by all of these areas (some more than others) and presents a valuable and very readable introduction to this interdisciplinary field, both for students and academics of related fields. A literary scholar himself, Campbell admirably goes beyond popular clichés regarding the impact of the King James Version on English and American literature and takes into account its reception history in contexts ranging from the English Civil War to contemporary American politics. In the first third of the book he provides brief yet sufficient background on William Tyndale's translation and other versions that preceded the King James Version, with aptly chosen illustrations and plates to accompany the story of the making and early editions of the King James Version itself. The chronological placement of the King James Version's ‘last gasp of dissent’ in 1660 (p. 127) is rather too early: other recent accounts of the English Bible have mentioned Thomas Ward's Errata to the Protestant Bible, published in 1688 and reprinted at least once in the eighteenth century and around ten times in the nineteenth century, showing long-standing Roman Catholic opposition, not to mention the Protestant calls for revision that began in the English Civil War period. Discussion of the American romance with the King James Version in the last third of the book makes an appropriate distinction between the King James Version-Only religious movement of the last century and the special role that the version has had in formal events such as presidential inaugurations, the most recent being no exception. Particularly useful are his sections on millenarianism and biblical culture in America, Mormon adaptations of the King James Version, and the use of the Bible in African-American communities. Further explorations of the King James Version's impact in other colonial and postcolonial contexts would have helped to convey the global impact of the King James Version as distributed and re-translated by affiliates of the British and Foreign Bible Society. One is often left wishing that Oxford University Press had allowed some space for footnotes, an unfortunate trend in many trade books of late. Campbell's work certainly involves new research yet it will be difficult for the non-specialist to sort out the new from the previously-published sources, and one must resort to Google-searching to track down website quotes in his discussion of contemporary topics. The book none the less accomplishes a great deal in 275 pages of main text (plus appendices and bibliography) and with the coming of a paperback edition in September 2011 it will no doubt remain a leading one-volume history of the King James Version for many years to come.