Book excerpt: `A very effective survey of an important theme on British political and social history...' - Andrew Chandler, Midland History. `This book effectively discharges its proclaimed purpose...a sound, successful and informative survey.' - Ian Christie, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. `The volume provides a balanced and useful overview of the latest scholarship on an important period in church history...' - Carla H. Hay, Albion `A useful and balanced survey of the condition of the Established Church at the accession of George III ... for anyone seeking a straightforward up-to-date survey, this is the book to begin with ... a very useful book...' - John Guy, The Journal of Welsh Religious History. In this wide-ranging book, William Gibson examines the principal themes in the developing relationship between the churches, the state and society between 1760 and 1850. Among other issues this book examines the involvement of the Church of England in Politics, the development of a clerical profession, the work of the bishops and clergy, the economic position of the church, the Church's reaction to the French and American Revolutions, the exercise of Church Patronage by premiers, the development of Church parties, the growth of Toleration, the reaction of the churches to industrialisation, the Halevy debate, the reform of the church after 1830, the development of Nonconformity and the state of religion and social groups in 1850.