So strongly associated is the Salvation Army with its modern mission of service that its colorful history as a religious movement is often overlooked. In telling the story of the organization in America, Lillian Taiz traces its evolution from a working-class, evangelical religion to a movement that emphasized service as the path to salvation.

When the Salvation Army crossed the Atlantic from Britain in 1879, it immediately began to adapt its religious culture to its new American setting. The group found its constituency among young, working-class men and women who were attracted to its intensely experiential religious culture, which combined a frontier-camp-meeting style with working-class forms of popular culture modeled on the saloon and theater. In the hands of these new recruits, the Salvation Army developed a remarkably democratic internal culture. By the turn of the century, though, as the Army increasingly attempted to attract souls by addressing the physical needs of the masses, the group began to turn away from boisterous religious expression toward a more "refined" religious culture and a more centrally controlled bureaucratic structure.

Placing her focus on the membership of the Salvation Army and its transformation as an organization within the broader context of literature on class, labor, and women's history, Taiz sheds new light on the character of American working-class culture and religion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

"Pamela Walker's treatment of the Salvation Army restores religious and social complexity to a group too easily misunderstood in the twenty-first century. Drawing us into a vivid, vibrant world of Victorian experience, Walker proves that the significance of the movement extended far beyond the demonstrations that became a familiar part of London street life."--Deborah Valenze, author of "The First Industrial Woman"

"A major contribution to our understanding of Victorian society, [this book] will undoubtedly become the key work on the origins of the Salvation Army, a major reference not just among historians of religion, but also among urban historians, gender historians, and historians of popular culture. . . . Perhaps the outstanding feature of the book is the author's ability to interweave a highly nuanced account of the development and theological orientation of the Salvation Army, and a fresh appraisal of its central figures, with a broader understanding of Victorian society, culture, and politics."--Andrew Davies, author of "Leisure, Gender, and Poverty"

"Deeply researched and vividly written, this book offers an innovative and consistently thought-provoking interpretation of the Salvation Army's origins and early history. Three aspects of the book are especially interesting. First, the discussion of conversion, including its physical manifestations, is powerful and convincing. Second, the theme of gender runs through the book. As well as presenting a striking portrait of the Hallelujah Lasses, Walker shows how the Salvationists challenged conventional notions both of femininity and of masculinity. Third, her discussion of Salvationist propaganda and its ambivalent relation tothe urban working class milieu is consistently illuminating. She shows how the Army drew on certain aspects of popular culture in order to subvert other aspects."--Hugh McLeod, author of "Secularisation in Western Europe 184

Women in God's Army is the first study of its kind devoted to the critical analysis of this central claim. It traces the extent to which this egalitarian ideal was realised in the private and public lives of first- and second-generation female Salvationists in Britain and argues that the Salvation Army was found wanting in its overall commitment to women's equality with men. Bold pronouncements were not matched by actual practice in the home or in public ministry. Andrew Mark Eason traces the nature of these discrepancies, as well as the Victorian and evangelical factors that lay behind them. He demonstrates how Salvationists often assigned roles and responsibilities on the basis of gender rather than equality, and the ways in which these discriminatory practices were supported by a male-defined theology and authority. He views this story from a number of angles, including historical, gender and feminist theology, ensuring it will be of interest to a wide spectrum of readers. Salvationists themselves will appreciate the light it sheds on recent debates. Ultimately, however, anyone who wants to learn more about the human struggle for equality will find this book enlightening.

"The collapse of community and the death of character have become familiar laments, but few commentators offer positive solutions grounded in solid empirical research. "Visions of Charity examines how people develop "moral selves" through acts of service to the needy. Through her balanced assessment of the moral meanings that volunteers attach to their service activities, Allahyari charts a way to reinvigorate our sense of community and character."--Robert Wuthnow, author of "Loose Connections: Joining Together in America's Fragmented Communities

"People work hard to create their moral selves, and Rebecca Allahyari shows us many of the ways they do it. "Visions of Charity describes the emotional processes and the creative processes as well as the moral rhetoric involved. The power of Allahyari's account comes from an unusual comparison between two Sacramento charities aiding the homeless, one a branch of the Salvation Army, the other a left-leaning Catholic organization. Because she did extensive fieldwork at each, she offers a fine-grained portrait of 'moral selving' from the bottom up. What is more-her experience forced her to abandon her initial expectations about which group treated the homeless with greater dignity and respect."--James M. Jasper, author of "The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements

"This book has much to offer scholars and policymakers. The recommendations with which Glenn concludes are challenging and are likely to spark useful debate."--William Galston, University of Maryland, College Park

"Glenn's argument is an impressive one, making a comprehensive case for a new relationship between government and faith-based organizations that will meet the Constitution's First Amendment requirements, protect the autonomy of the faith-based organizations, and answer some of the most important questions about the crisis of the welfare state and the relation of government to civil society."--James W. Skillen, Center for Public Justice

Increasingly, the religious practices people engage in and the ways they talk about what is meaningful or sacred take place in the context of media culture -- in the realm of the so-called secular. Focusing on this intersection of the sacred and the secular, this volume gathers together the work of media experts, religious historians, sociologists of religion, and authorities on American studies and art history. Topics range from Islam on the Internet to the quasi-religious practices of Elvis fans, from the uses of popular culture by the Salvation Army in its early years to the uses of interactive media technologies at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Beit Hashoah Museum of Tolerance. The issues that the essays address include the public/private divide, the distinctions between the sacred and profane, and how to distinguish between the practices that may be termed "religious" and those that may not.

Youth of Darkest England examines the representation of English working-class children, the youthful inhabitants of the poor urban neighbourhoods that a number of writers dubbed "darkest England", in Victorian and Edwardian imperialist literature. In particular, the book focuses on how the writings for and about youth undertook an ideological project to enlist working class children into the British imperial enterprise. Lucidly written and thoroughly researched, this book will make a major contribution to our understanding of youth culture and children's literature in the nineteenth century.