Book excerpt: This book presents a radical new interpretation of Britain’s Chief Rabbis from Nathan Adler to Immanuel Jakobovits. It examines the theologies of the Chief Rabbis and seeks to reveal and explain their impact on the religious life of Anglo-Jewry. Elton overturns the argument that there was a significant shift to the right in the Chief Rabbinate during the period studied, and thereby sets out a new interpretation of the most important event in Anglo-Jewish religious history in the twentieth century, the Jacobs affair. This fascinating study develops a new and improved typology of the Jewish response to modernity, and is therefore a contribution to the neglected area of Anglo-Jewish religious history, and the history of modern Judaism as a whole. It will be of interest to the student of Anglo-Jewry, of Judaism in the modern period, of the effects of modernity on religion, and general reader alike.