Written by a New Zealand Salvationist, this publication provides a scholarly overview of the Salvation Army's global story from the mid-1860s to the present. As such, it goes well beyond the Army's official multi-volume history, which tends to be superficial and hagiographic. In the first chapter of Saved to save and saved to serve, Harold Hill chronicles important dates, events and individuals associated with the organisation's distant and recent past. Here, in particular, he adopts the framework of the sociologist Roland Robertson, who outlined four stages of development in the Army's journey from sect to established sect. Chapters ii through vii are more theological than historical in nature. Many of the themes encountered here are related to Salvationist ecclesiology: Church versus sect, clericalism, female ministry, sacramental self-understanding and worship. Evolving Salvationist views on other subjects – such as Scripture, holiness and eschatology – take up less space. Chapters viii and ix address the social work of the Salvation Army, both before and after the release of William Booth's In darkest England and the way out (1890). Even though Booth's ambitious social scheme was only partially successful, Hill highlights the ways in which it impacted the Army at home and abroad. The final chapter of this volume examines the international expansion of the denomination, which quickly secured a presence on every inhabited continent. Hill acknowledges that Evangelical factors lay behind this early rapid growth, but he also realises that Army, extension was made easier by the enormous reach of the British Empire. Imperialism came to influence a number of white Salvationists, who often monopolised positions of power in colonial settings. In recent decades, however, indigenous leadership has become a priority within Army circles, given that the vast majority of Salvationists now reside in the non-western world. Hill's candid assessment of these and other dynamics should be applauded. He certainly has succeeded in producing a critical alternative to the official account of the Army's past. Specialists and non-specialists alike will find value in Hill's work, which sheds needed light on the development of Salvationist beliefs and practices over the last 150 years. This being said, Saved to save and saved to serve could have been improved in several respects. First of all, far more space should have been devoted to historiography in the opening pages of the text. Doing so would have strengthened this publication, which lacks a guiding idea or central thesis. Furthermore, Hill could have reduced the number of lengthy quotations within each chapter. They impede the flow of the paragraphs and leave less room for scholarly analysis. Lastly, more attention should have been paid to fact checking, as some dates and claims are simply incorrect. Yet, despite these weaknesses, there is much to admire in this book.