BOOK BRIEFS

ometimes hope can come in the form of a good story. Alicia Turner, Laurence Cox, and Brian Bocking offer just that in (Oxford), though they are careful to show that this is neither a white savior narrative nor a hagiography. Through an astounding feat of historical detective work, the authors recount the life of a working-class Irishman ordained as U Dhammaloka at the turn of the twentieth century. He became a minor international celebrity for his staunchly pro-Buddhist and pro-Burmese activism, which provoked the ire of colonial authorities who saw his advocacy as a challenge to the British imperial enterprise. Unlike his contemporaries—mostly middle-class English gentlemen-monks more interested in philosophy than