This meticulously researched and wide-ranging book is the first comprehensive study of Thomas Edwards's Gangraena, probably the most important printed work of the English revolution. It provides a vivid account of the printed polemic of the revolution and its place in the religious and political mobilisation of the mid-1640s. Hughes's book is a contribution to the history of Presbyterianism, of London, of parliamentarian fragmentation, and of reading during the revolution. It combines the new ‘history of the book' with a concern for politics and religion during the crisis of the English revolution.