Looking at the German central bank "as a political institution" with the overriding mission of "protecting the currency," a young American academic has produced a first-rate study that squeezes a great deal of material into not very many pages. A particular strength of the book is its analysis of how the Bundesbank functions as a largely independent entity within the German system. The additional pressures of Germany's major role in the European and world economies are looked at in some detail, and those of German unification and possible monetary unification of the European Community are foreshadowed.