L©on Harmel

"Leon 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 Leon Harmel." -Cistercian Studies Quarterly 39.3 (2004)

"Until now, no biography of Leon 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

"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