"A very well-researched piece.… The strengths of the book are that it examines the rural and the urban experiences of German-Americans and that it suggests the need for some serious revisions of the scholarly emphasis on the severity of the reaction to German-American citizens during the period." "Degrees of Allegiance is a detailed, sophisticated, and convincing account of how wartime expectations pressured Missouri Germans to relinquish the distinctive parts of their culture and the extent to which they actually did so." (Missouri Historical Review) "The author makes a convincing case … and departs from the 'victimization' mode so characteristic of so much ethnic history today, and treats the German-American experience with considerable nuance.… The prime audience will of course be people interested in German-American history and Missouri politics of this era, but this is not an insider's account and is written to be accessible also to general readers." (Texas A & M University)
