Cogan's well-researched and tightly focused Catholic Social Networks in Early Modern England is a detail-packed volume that follows through on the promises of the title. Catholic Social Networks examines the creation, maintenance, and usage of Catholic/recusant familial and friendship social networks in England from the early fifteenth century through the reign of Charles I, with particular focus on the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Throughout, Cogan lets the primary source examples tell the stories of elite Catholic families and how they performed loyalty, gender, and faith through patronage, building projects, gardening, and intercessions in early modern Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Warwickshire.

Catholic Social Networks begins with, naturally, an exploration of the creation of social networks in the late medieval and early modern periods, as well as a thorough examination of how to study and interpret networks. After setting up how the families in the aforementioned counties had come to build their networks with and around one another, Cogan traces how the Reformation shifted those connections. These first two chapters showcase Cogan's meticulous eye for detail, before moving on to the meat of her analysis: her chapters on architecture, citizenship in a burgeoning nation-state, and patronage. These chapters are a special treat—a brilliant analysis filled with those keen details that builds into something entirely unique. The chapters themselves are a joy to read, and, when pulled together, they add to a larger academic conversation about how recusants in England were truly integral to the fabric of the realm through their gardens; how women built and used their networks to save family members from long prison sentences or death; and how men displayed their loyalty to the monarch and state through acts of service.

The word of the day when reading through Cogan's monograph is coexistence. Coexistence is not the same thing as tolerance, as Alexandra Walsham's Charitable Hatred (2006) would have us remember. Coexistence “was not toleration, but neither was it the kind of persecution that drove religious warfare” (197). Because of the effort put forth by recusants to be seen as loyal citizens among a wider populace, England was able to avoid “the kind of religious war that the French suffered in the sixteenth century” (249).

Though the practicing Catholics and recusants of Cogan's work lived in a world where they were persecuted for their beliefs, they still, through necessity, sought a peaceful coexistence with their Protestant neighbors and loudly proclaimed their loyalty to their Protestant monarchs. Because of how intertwined elite families were in the period, Catholics would seek to build connections with Protestants through marriages, neighborly friendships, and courtly or administrative positions. With these networks in place, families could hope to be granted more prestigious positions at court or within county administration and Parliament. They could also seek release from fees or imprisonment in more dire circumstances. Because families sought coexistence, instead of tolerance or equality, many recusants were able to maintain their well-established places in the county social hierarchy during and after the Long Reformation.

The theme of coexistence is threaded throughout Cogan's work—even though neighboring families may have been separated by their faith, they were united by their financial endeavors and favors that they would extend to one another. An example of this was sharing architects or building style tips and tricks, like Sir Fulke Greville sharing his ideas on how to improve the building project and gardens of his friend, Richard Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury (136). These men (as it was usually men who embarked upon building endeavors) would incorporate ideas of early modern masculinity, philosophy, and expressions of loyalty into their buildings and gardens. Sir Thomas Tresham, when he worked on Lyveden New Bield, incorporated texts and images “which allowed him to convey multiple meanings to multiple consumers and to portray himself as both a faithful Catholic and a loyal subject” (142). Architectural endeavors were not the only way that elite Catholics expressed their faith and loyalty—and Cogan's analysis of gardens and architectural building prowess as a means of demonstrating masculinity is creative and effective.

This study is essential reading for those who study religion and religious expression in early modern England. Cogan brings a nuanced sensitivity to her work, and it shows in this impressive book.