In Giving Glory to God in Appalachia, Howard Dorgan explores the worship practices of Primitive, Regular, Old Regular, Union, Missionary, and Free Will Baptists. The worship practices of the denominations under consideration are varied and often exuberant, and Dorgan''s writing is highly evocative, conveying in rich detail the joy and pathos of worship in these mountain churches. As Dorgan states in the introduction, he is less concerned with academic theorizing and more concerned with presenting a vivid, first-hand account of all that he has seen and heard. And in the nearly fifteen years he spent researching his book, Dorgan saw quite a lot: spirited, vociferous sermons, creek baptisms, foot washings, home comings, dinners on the ground, and evangelistic radio broadcasts. Dorgan''s prose is at its most enchaining when he presents tableaus of these phenomena: a foot washing precipitates the erasure of interpersonal turmoil between two women; a preacher uses his lively mode of sermonic delivery to orchestrate the rapturous shouts and "hollers" of a group of women; a radio evangelist exhorts a recent widower to except salvation. The wonderful pictures interspersed throughout the book and the transcription of sermons help to further reify the worship scenes that Dorgan describes. At times, Dorgan''s prose is intensely personal. Dorgan is always aware that he is writing about sets of shared values and worship practices that mean a great deal to the congregations he is studying, and Dorgan treats his subjects and their beliefs with tremendous sensitivity and respect. Ultimately, Dorgan is writing about people and the ways in which they invest their lives with meaning and purpose. This gives Giving Glory to God in Appalachia a universal appeal: even readers who find the religious settings in the book completely alien will be able to sympathize with the congregations'' search for meaning. To sum up: Dorgan has written a beautiful, enthralling book. Don''t think--just buy. And while you''re at it, you might want to consider Airwaves Of Zion: Radio Religion In Appalachia (ISBN-10: 0870497979), also by Dorgan.

Lexington, Kentucky, has the honor of being the birthplace of one of the first genuinely homegrown American Christian faiths: the Disciples of Christ. Established in 1832 by the union of two Christian groups led by Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, their descendent churches are now referred to by religious scholars as the Stone-Campbell movement. In the state’s best tradition, this historic movement soon acquired its own larger-than-life legend: Raccoon John Smith, the flamboyant frontier preacher of the southern Kentucky mountains. Smith moved to the lowland Bluegrass and braved considerable odds to preach and establish the self-described “pure, nondenominational” Christianity of Stone and Campbell throughout the state and beyond. The 1832 union of Stone and Campbell’s churches was in fact formalized not by Stone and Campbell, but by Stone together with Smith, who represented Campbell’s constituency in Kentucky. Raccoon John Smith occupies a well-deserved place both in Kentucky and Stone-Campbell history. All previous biographical studies have been colored by the religious faith he embraced and the legends that evolved around him, however, rather than giving an accurate account of Smith’s life. In Raccoon John Smith, Elder John Sparks fills this void in the literature about Smith, using historical sources to present a faithful portrait of a seminal frontier preacher and colorful figure in early Kentucky history.

Using the Tennessee antievolution 'Monkey Law,' authored by a local legislator, as a measure of how conservatives successfully resisted, co-opted, or ignored reform efforts, Jeanette Keith explores conflicts over the meaning and cost of progress in Tennessee's hill country from 1890 to 1925. Until the 1890s, the Upper Cumberland was dominated by small farmers who favored limited government and firm local control of churches and schools. Farm men controlled their families' labor and opposed economic risk taking; farm women married young, had large families, and produced much of the family's sustenance. But the arrival of the railroad in 1890 transformed the local economy. Farmers battled town dwellers for control of community institutions, while Progressives called for cultural, political, and economic modernization. Keith demonstrates how these conflicts affected the region's mobilization for World War I, and she argues that by the 1920s shifting gender roles and employment patterns threatened traditionalists' cultural hegemony. According to Keith, religion played a major role in the adjustment to modernity, and local people united to support the 'Monkey Law' as a way of confirming their traditional religious values.