Lyerly examines Methodism separately from other evangelical sects. Moreover, she analyzes religious thought and practice on their own terms, not s the expression or reflection of Revolutionary republicanism or other secular ideologies... [the book] challenges the notion that Methodism and evangelicalism were, in part, tools for elite hegemony... Lyerly employs the creative reading of conventional sources (itinerant's reports, church histories) with arduous manuscript
research... Methodism and the Southern Mind is an accessible, penetrating analysis of an era of Methodist history that has been overshadowed by the Church's remarkable growth in later decades. It deserves a wide readership.
