"'At a time when academic historians seem to be committed to prose that is deadly dull, Nancy Lusignan Schultz, a professor of English, lets the story emerge as a good yarn, not a big yawn... she brings an impressive depth of scholarship to this odd, forgotten chapter of America's early social history... The result is a gripping slice of history with fresh, often unsettling resonances for the modern reader.' (Daniel Stashower, The Washington Post) 'Schultz is at her best when she is blending the theological nuances of early-19th-century American Catholicism into her finely etched portrait of the society in which Ann Mattingly lived.' (Fergus M. Bordewich, The Wall Street Journal)"
