British Idealism and Political Theory D. Boucher & A. Vincent Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2000, 256pp. ISBN: 0-7486-1428-1. Contemporary Political Theory (2002) 1, 256–258. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300032 A book that deals with British Idealism and political theory, insofar as it aims to present the theories of the British Idealists faithfully while rendering them relevant and accessible to a contemporary readership, is taking on a complex and daunting task. British Idealism was a tradition of thought that incorporated a range of theorists and styles. Moreover, its academic preeminence in the latter part of the nineteenth century was followed by a rapid decline after the First World War so that an engagement with British Idealism must self-consciously retrieve its philosophical and political contexts from subsequent neglect. The historical retrieval of the characteristic preoccupations and standpoints of the British Idealists demands sensitivity to context and style. The British Idealists engaged with religious doctrines and sentiments, perceived the state in ethical terms and tended to adopt a tone of sobriety and earnestness. All of these features of their thought run counter to the more secular, circumspect style assumed by philosophers and political theorists in the Western world after World War Two. The British Idealists’ elaborate metaphysics and grand theory by which an individual’s identity is related to wider webs of meaning and political obligations are at odds with the fine-grained philosophical analysis practised by analytical philosophers and the empirical mindset of modern political science. The deconstructive turn of Continental theory is evidently a turn away from the elaboration of ideals of reason and ethics undertaken by the British Idealists. It is to the credit of Boucher and Vincent that their book goes a long way in achieving the goal of making the British Idealists intelligible, interesting and relevant to contemporary philosophical and political projects without sacrificing authentic retrieval of historical context on the altar of passing fashion. The authors have eschewed presenting a generalized account of the British Idealists, opting instead to present ‘intensive studies of individual Idealist thinkers’. A short introduction generalizes the perspective of the British Idealists, commenting on their Hegelian world view, their interests in religion and evolutionary notions, their ethical reading of state and society, and attesting to their influence beyond the UK. The heart of the book is its engagement with individual theorists. The rationale for this course of action is justified by the study itself in that the various theorists examined are shown to Contemporary Political Theory, 2002, 1, (256–258) r 2002 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1470-8914/02 $15.00 www.palgrave-journals.com/cpt