"What the Gunpowder Plot Was" by Samuel Rawson Gardiner is an intelligent and well-thought response to an earlier book by John Gerard, "What Was The Gunpowder Plot ?". Ideally the two books should be read in tandem as the first outlines many objections to the traditional story of the plot which the second then addresses. The earlier book builds a case that the plot was at least in part a contrivance of the state. Gardiner's book refutes this and does so in a commendably efficient manner. It is a work of true scholarship which lacks the partisan nature of many works on the subject. Gardiner has no axe to grind and assesses the available evidence in a fair and even way. Compulsory reading for anybody interested in the Gunpowder Plot