The work of Professor John Mohan will be familiar to anyone with an interest in research that focuses on volunteering in the United Kingdom. His contribution to the field, particularly in recent years as Professor of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, has been extensive, and the book under review here, Volunteering in the United Kingdom: The spirit of service, draws from and builds upon that legacy of high-quality research. It does so by providing, as the cover notes suggest, “an informed understanding of the character, distribution and impacts of volunteering.”

The book is structured into four parts. The first, “Frameworks,” explores concepts and definitions, including the three paradigms of volunteering, as well as broad trends of volunteering in the UK context. Part two, “Contours,” delves into current research and what we can say we know about the subject based on available data. Part three, “Impacts,” explores the relationship between volunteering and key societal areas such as employability, health, and civic engagement. Part four, “Changing contexts,” notes the changing attitudes to volunteering, influence of economic circumstances, and the impact of COVID-19 on UK volunteering.

The book obviously attempts to cover a lot of ground and is successful in providing an informative, insightful overview of what can be a very complex subject area in an accessible and very readable way.

Although the book is formally arranged into four parts, in reading, it has a rhythm which can be summarized in three ways. First, there is a critical edge to the book that approaches existing research and data on volunteering in a way that firmly focuses on the limitations we face in attempting to draw firm conclusions. This thrust is particularly apparent in the earlier chapters—almost acting as a large caveat to later sections—and is particularly interesting as a summary of the field.

Second, the middle sections focus more on an analysis of what existing data and research can tell us and move away somewhat from the broader critical approach. This is understandable given the need to create a base of understanding but does create something of a fault line in the narrative. It has the advantage of situating the book in a way that has appeal both to academic researchers of volunteering and a wider audience who may have a more casual interest. Some of these middle sections are—as would be expected—focused on quantitative data, but this is dealt with in a way that is both insightful for those who are enthusiastic about this type of research and sympathetic toward those who are not. There is a clear and tight structure in these sections which contributes to the readability of the book as a whole, and qualitative approaches are covered in an equally insightful manner. Although the majority of the data have a UK focus, reference is made to some other research, notably from the United States and Canada.

Third, there is a current of wider social commentary running throughout the book with a focus not just on the position of volunteering in society but also on what the state of volunteering might actually tell us about society. This returns on several occasions to the key point that volunteering does not exist in isolation to wider socioeconomic conditions that enable or constrain the ability of people to choose what to do with their time. This current at times stays under the surface of certain chapters but is never far away from the overall narrative of the book. It therefore feels like it could have been a more substantial focus, or even another volume entirely. It elevates the book from what could have been a dry analysis of volunteering data to more of a message for change and at times almost a call to action.

There are very informative and important messages throughout the book in relation to causation and what we can really say about the benefits and costs of volunteering. Suggestions in the data about the nonlinear relationship between volunteering and various outcomes, and the impacts of different frequencies or “doses” of volunteering challenge policy assumptions that frame volunteering as an unquestionable, unlimited, and ever present “good.” Broad conclusions around the selection bias visible in research, and the slow but steady recent decline in volunteering (including during the COVID-19 period), along with a suggestion that “volunteering is simply something that we do not enjoy as much as we used to” (p. 200) paints a depressing picture about the state of volunteering in the United Kingdom. However, with its broader message regarding the wider influences that have led to this position, the book hints at a way volunteering could form part of a positively reinforcing cycle that more fully supports the “spirit of service.”