Winner of the 2001 Award for Excellence in Religious Studies in Analytical-Descriptive Studies, American Academy of Religion Honorable Mention for the 2001 Cawelti Book Award, American Culture Association Honorable Mention for the 2000 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Sociology and Anthropology, Association of American Publishers "Harding has brought the finely tuned eyes and ears of an anthropologist to her ... Read moreresearch inside Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist community. Her analysis is incisive and empathetic."
Linda L. Giedl, The Christian Science Monitor "This is a highly readable book."
Library Journal "Harding's central subject is the rhetoric of fundamentalism, the language of its persuasion. But she also explains how Falwell, and others like him, have brought the fundamentalist community into politics ... Harding's headlong exuberance propels [the book] and carries us deep into the mind and heart of a subculture that is increasingly mainstream."
Ronald D. Elving, Washington Post "An eloquent and incisive study of religious fundamentalism in the United States... [A] theoretically rich and highly original work."
Jeremy Stolow, Sociology of Religion "Harding's own mastery is on display throughout her book... By the end ... she has skillfully shown the myriad ways in which fundamentalist rhetoric created and transformed both the fundamentalist community itself and the wider American culture. Her work should be required reading not only for students of American religion, but for anyone who wishes to study sympathetically and fruitfully a different religious culture."
Jonathan Moore, Christian Century "So much has been written about resurgent Christian fundamentalism that it is difficult to imagine that someone might find something fresh to say about it. Yet Susan Friend Harding gives us some amazing glimpses into contemporary fundamentalism's heart and soul... [A] bold, artful, and largely convincing book."
Joel Carpenter, Journal of Religion Show Less