“Until now, no biography of Léon Harmel has appeared in English. Coffey has addressed this need, offering fresh perspectives on a leading figure in the French Catholic social reform movement. . . . This model of careful scholarship and felicitous style deserves to be read by all students of modern French history.” —Choice “Léon Harmel makes a major contribution to understanding the Catholic social tradition by documenting his significant influence on Catholic social teaching. . . . We can be grateful for the legacy of [Joan Coffey’s] impressive scholarship . . . [and] intellectual biography of Léon Harmel.” —Cistercian Studies Quarterly 39.3 (2004) "The biography becomes a veritable life and times and as such can be recommended not only to the specialist but to a much wider range of interested students and readers." —Catholic Historical Review “[This is] an engaging study." —American Historical Review “It is to the credit of his biographer that she turns to the best sources so as to give us an exact account of a man of action who engaged in the debates of his time and devoted himself to those undertakings that he knew he could see through.” —Journal of Markets and Morality “Coffey’s wording throughout is clear and authoritative, never evasive or biased. . . . [O]ne must conclude that she accomplished her goal: a fresh history of a French industrial reformer, consistently interesting as it passes through his youth, his family business, his ideas and ventures, and his influences on others.” —Catholic Library World