Daniel Wright's study on the female reform movement, whose membership reached approximately 45,000 in over six hundred societies across rural New England, the mid-Atlantic states, and the upper Midwest, complements two decades of previous studies on this significant, female-centered movement. Noting at the outset the contributions of prior studies by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Barbara Berg, Nancy Hewitt, Mary Ryan, Nancy Cott, and Christine Stansell, Wright claims that his study culls out two further refinements. First, he argues that prior studies emphasized the urban location of moral reform, which, in his words, “distorts our understanding of moral reform as it was practiced by the vast majority of its adherents and fails to explain why it appealed to them in the first place” (7). Instead, he locates his discussion of the movement in the rural and small-town auxiliaries—“contexts of considerable variety”—where he finds the majority of members (7). As evidence of this claim, he analyzes data related to the moral reform movement in three small towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and among the moderately prosperous class. Second, he argues that his study emphasizes the close connection between the moral reform movement and women's greater control over sexual activity. He finds evidence for this connection in the twin decline in marital fertility and premarital sexual relations, concomitant with a greater insistence on sexual abstinence before marriage, in the same geographic strongholds as the female reform movement. More will be said below about each of these two themes.

Wright's archival sources range widely and include moral reform periodicals, federal and state censuses from 1840–1850, and local auxiliaries' membership lists. The centerpiece of these sources, in his opinion, is the extant material from the Female Moral Reform Society of Grafton, Massachusetts, which includes a record book and a petition to the legislature. Wright's skillful use of the archival resources enables him to present a holistic picture of the moral reform movement from the individuals who were active in the movement, particularly women and clergymen, to families, small-town communities, and even to the parent organizations in New York and Boston. The breadth he captures continues as he sets the moral reform movement in the context of concurrent political, economic, and religious issues as well as other reform movements, including temperance and abolition.

Among the important themes of the moral reform movement that emerge in this study, three are particularly noteworthy. First, there is the central role played by religion, specifically the conjunction of revivalism and moral reform. Ironically, Wright argues that it was the lack of success by revivalists in converting men in large numbers that was most significant for the moral reform movement. This phenomenon had the unexpected impact of propelling more women, who could not institute change in their churches, into the moral reform movement where they had more impact. He also analyzes the role that theological language played in its articulation of the moral reform movement as God's cause (to be against the movement was to be in opposition to God and in league with Satan), particularly in light of the millennial fervor of the early 1840s when the Millerites reached their zenith. Finally, he traces the involvement of church members in the movement and finds that Congregational church members were in the majority.

A second critical theme in this study is the connection between the moral reform movement and a sexual revolution exemplified in a two-fold decline in marital fertility and premarital sexual relations. Wright finds that there is a geographical overlap between towns hosting moral reform societies and practicing “family limitation.” From this he extrapolates that the moral reform movement contributed to “a sexual revolution at least a half century in advance of the comparable one in Europe, and prior to widespread use or understanding of contraceptive techniques” (7). Further, he argues that the moral reform movement contributed to women's more active involvement in the decisions of family formation.

Finally, the integration of geographic, gender, and class factors in this study is striking. Wright finds that the movement prospered among middle-class women in rural and small-town auxiliaries. Here his focus on three small towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts as opposed to the parent organizations in New York or Boston provides new insight into the movement. He finds as well that the majority of women active in the movement had husbands or fathers who were farmers, artisans, or small manufacturers. From this he extrapolates that the leadership of the movement came from the middle class or aspiring middle class rather than from the wealthy or the impoverished.

Along with an interesting narrative on the reform movement, other noteworthy features of the book include an introductory and concluding summary to each chapter that serve as helpful bookends, tables and maps quantifying the data, and seventy pages of extensive footnotes on primary and secondary sources.