Sandy Calder's thought-provoking study of Primitive Methodism will command attention among scholars and students of nineteenth-century English religious and social history for at least two reasons. First, he takes an iconoclastic approach to the mythology of Primitive Methodism, robustly challenging the oft-rehearsed claims that the Connexion was a church of the poor (rather than a church for the poor or a mission to the poor) and that its structures were democratic, and thus conducive to the development of genuine working-class political and social movements. Calder's conclusion, by contrast, is that the Primitive Methodist Connexion presented itself as a church of the poor, but was actually a denomination led by a group of middle-class itinerant preachers and prosperous lay officials, and recruiting largely among the respectable working-class. The story of humble origins was a legend developed by Hugh Bourne, adopted by subsequent generations of Primitive Methodist advocates and apologists, and then uncritically accepted by later historians.

Secondly, Calder draws on a range of statistical evidence to underpin his argument about the realities of Primitive Methodist membership and leadership. He uses baptismal registers, census returns, and probate records to drill down into the personnel of the movement, illustrating the statistics with illuminating case studies.

Primitive Methodism has often been relegated to the side-lines of English religious and social history, or co-opted by people with other agendas. There are signs that interest in the movement, as and for itself, is growing, and this book will do much to inform and stimulate further research. It is warmly to be welcomed.