The Salvation Army has been active in southern Africa for well over a century, but it has attracted surprisingly little interest from scholars of religion and history. Norman Murdoch, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati, seeks to address this oversight in Christian warfare in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe. While not intended to be a comprehensive account of the Evangelical organisation's work in this country, Murdoch's book explores the tension-ridden relationship between African Salvationists and their white leaders, especially during the wars of liberation in the 1890s and the 1970s. It contends that the African struggle against colonial and white-minority rule in Rhodesia drew little support from Salvation Army administrators in Salisbury and London. Pursuing a paternalistic civilising mission, which brought land and monetary assistance from the white-run state, the Army remained opposed to the cause of African independence. Communist aid to freedom fighters in the 1970s only strengthened the organisation's opposition to African liberation, because most western Salvationists reviled Marxist ideology. Murdoch suggests that the Salvation Army's antipathy to Communism became a major reason for its suspension of full membership in the World Council of Churches, which was accused of funding leftist guerilla movements in Rhodesia and other parts of the developing world. This move, Murdoch argues, was the direct result of pressure from the conservative and well-funded American branch of the Salvation Army, which held increasing sway over the organisation's international leadership in Britain. Having little say in the matter were African Salvationists, who were particularly upset after the Army relinquished full membership in the World Council of Churches in 1981. Their loyalty to the Geneva-based ecumenical body, which had done much to combat racism on the African continent, was discounted by the Salvation Army's Anglo-American leaders, whose obsession with defeating Communism blinded them to the interests of those on the ground. Anti-Communist sentiments, in tandem with colonialist and neo-colonialist mentalities, worked against the liberation of African Salvationists in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe. In support of this overarching thesis, Murdoch draws upon a number of primary sources, from written documents (published and unpublished) to oral interviews with a variety of individuals. In some chapters, however, the documentation appears relatively light, suggesting the need for more research on certain issues. While the secondary sources used in this book are relevant, it is unfortunate that they rarely extend beyond the late 1990s. Recent research on Salvationist missions would have enriched Murdoch's narrative. We are not told, for example, how the Army's mission to Rhodesia may have differed from prior ventures into places such as South Africa and India, or how it meshed with the organisation's pre-existing missionary principles. One would have expected some engagement with these historiographical concerns. Despite such weaknesses, there is much of value to be gleaned from Christian warfare in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.