In a clearly written and cogently argued study of one of the Reformation's most important early historians, Alexandra Kess presents a fascinating portrait of Johann Sleidan (1506–56) and offers an intriguing reinterpretation of his famous history. Kess divides her study into two major sections. The first is biographical. Born in the rugged Eifel on the west bank of the Rhine, Sleidan studied in Liège, Cologne and Louvain. He began his professional career in France working as a secretary for Cardinal Jean Du Bellay. Here he was active diplomatically as he sought an alliance between France and German Protestant princes. When the climate became less congenial to the evangelical cause, he left France and settled in Strasbourg. With the assistance of Martin Bucer he became the historian of the Schmalkaldic League. After their defeat in 1547, he worked as a diplomat for Strasbourg while devoting ever more time to his literary pursuits. Though there is a significant body of scholarship on various aspects of Sleidan's career, Kess has expanded this corpus substantially through her work with his correspondence in particular. Effectively tying the various strands of Sleidan scholarship together, she has completed the first full and integrated portrait of the Reformation diplomat and historian in English. Kess devotes the second half of the monograph to Sleidan's Commentaries, a history of the Reformation from 1517 to 1555. Here Kess is at her most persuasive as she illustrates how the Commentaries were a culmination of both Sleidan's literary and political careers. Sleidan's first major success as an author came with the publication of his Two orations in 1541. Similar to Luther's famous 1520 tract To the Christian nobility, the Two orations were a call for German princes to unite and reform their Church, the Church that Rome had despoiled and ruined. Such an appeal for unity was consistent with Sleidan's diplomatic efforts to bring French Evangelicals and German Protestants together. It was this desire to create a broad evangelical front against Rome, Kess claims, that prompted Martin Bucer to go to Philip of Hesse and argue so strongly for Sleidan's appointment as historian of the Schmalkaldic League. Kess continues by suggesting that Sleidan's Commentaries, with their clear emphasis on political history, were an appeal for German princes from across the evangelical spectrum to drop their theological differences and come together to work for a full Reformation in their lands. The volume concludes with two chapters that evaluate Sleidan's reception within Germany and France. Through her analysis of Sleidan, Kess reminds us once more how critically important Strasbourg was during the early years of the Reformation, particularly as a bridge between French and German Protestantism.