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faith and practice subject to perpetual revision” (68). Gwyn sees too much contemporary Quaker activism as shaped by “the wider progressive sector of civil society” rather than rooted in historical Quakerism (68). The second portion of the book, however,Militant Peacemaking in theManner of Friends, dispels any impression that Gwyn wants us to rest contentedly in contemporary American society. He opens with a reading of the Book of Revelation and then proceeds to argue that its depictions of Babylon, the False Prophet, and Dragon are comparable to contemporary American capitalism and empire. For example: “The False Prophet of our time is embodied by the rightwing ideologues and apologists—both religious and secular—for the militaryindustrial complex. . . . As we rue the clergy who submitted to the intimidation of the Third Reich, so those who wrap themselves in the flag today will be exposed by the Word of God” (88–89). But Gwyn is clear that he considers it self-defeating for liberal Friends simply to throw themselves into Green or Democratic Socialist politics. “It is crucial—in the true sense of crucifying our hearts and minds to the world—that we discern carefully, at every step, the true gospel faith of our Quaker tradition from whatever ideological and theoretical thought frames that appear convergent with it” (91). This is, then, a work of both history and advocacy, and is always open in its aims. As history, it is generally convincing. Gwyn has only a handful of peers in his command of seventeenth-century Quaker writings. When he ventures into broader historical settings, he occasionally falters. For example, few U.S. historians would agree that the Revolutionary War began in 1775 because “the hot-heads at Lexington and Concord sparked a violent revolution that hijacked the robust argument and nonviolent resistance that American colonists were already waging against Britain’s imperial domination” (43). Indexes would have been a welcome addition to the volume as well. But these are minor flaws in readable, deliberately provocative work.