George Marsden is arguably among a premiere group of historians of American evangelicalism. He is a prolific author, a beloved mentor, and a frequent speaker. Many of his works have spawned new areas of inquiry or offered correctives to previous historiography. The editors and authors of American Evangelicalism seek to honor that legacy and the continuing impact Marsden has made on studies of American religious history generally and American evangelicalism specifically.

The book is broken into five parts, which revolve around five of Marsden's works. Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale University Press, 2003), The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience (Yale University Press, 1970; new ed., Wipf and Stock, 2003), Fundamentalism and American Culture (Oxford University Press, 1980; new ed., 2006), The Soul of the American University (Oxford University Press, 1994), and Reforming Fundamentalism (Eerdmans, 1987) serve as jumping off points in each part for the various authors to summarize the particular work, discuss the impact it has had, and offer “new directions” scholarship that has been going since the release of the work under consideration. They are organized chronologically according to subject rather than publication date. This means Jonathan Edwards is discussed first while Reforming Fundamentalism closes out the work, even though Jonathan Edwards was published sixteen years later. Although Marsden has written additional books, chapters, and articles, the editors claim that these have been the most influential to the field in bringing historiograpical change. Few would probably dispute the influence of these works even if they might disagree with some of the premises or arguments Marsden makes in them.

But the work is not just a historiography of Marsden's influence, although a select bibliography of his works is included. Not only do the authors of the various essays weigh in on Marsden the academic, many also reflect on the impact of Marsden the Christian academic who has been interested in demonstrating and encouraging Christian scholarship performed according to the standards of the secular academy but profoundly influenced by one's own faith commitments. Certainly anyone who has read Marsden knows that this does not mean engaging in providentialist history but in seeing scholarship as a vocation within one's faith. For Marsden, this refers to the influence of his commitments to Christianity, but he has also been supportive of scholars engaging in such work even outside of the Christian tradition.

A student of Sydney Ahlstrom and the director of the dissertations of many now burgeoning scholars (a full list of the dissertations of Marsden's students is included in an appendix), George Marsden is certainly worthy of the tribute by his former students, friends, and other academics that make up this work. The essays sometimes only tangentially relate to Marsden, though. Jay Case's chapter on the African American Great Awakening and Kristin Kobes Du Mez's essay on Katharine Bushnell and global Christianity are two examples of this. They are excellent chapters in their own right. They address important fields and actors that need more attention in the historiography, but their minimal discussion of Marsden in the individual chapters seems to be tacked on because of the overall work they are included in. Perhaps this is due to these being “new directions” essays, but at times some essays felt out of place or needed more explicit framing to connect the essay to Marsden's work.

Most of the authors are evenhanded in their treatment of Marsden and his work. Even those chapters written by Marsden's students and close friends do not shy away from offering critiques when necessary. Darren Dochuk's essay sometimes might be too effusive in its praise of Marsden's poetics, but this is the exception not the rule. Yes, the tone is positive towards Marsden, but many of the authors do include critiques or places where they believe Marsden made incorrect interpretations or at least reference how others have challenged Marsden.

An area that could have used more development is how our understanding of American religious history is now being informed by more fields than just history and that Marsden has been influential there as well. Religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and other fields are providing insights into the history and religious and American of American religious history. Perhaps more than a passing reference to these fields in the introduction would have helped broaden the subject matter. It is certainly understandable that when this book is focused on Marsden the historian and written by Marsden's students and associates who have Ph.D.'s from history programs that the main focus would be on the methodology of history. But to subtitle the work “the State of American Religious History” and only include one scholar in a religious studies department (John Turner, who got his Ph.D. in history under Marsden) obscures how broad the field is currently and how informative Marsden's work can be in those related fields.

These minor criticisms aside, the work does evidence how vibrant the field of American religious history is and how important Marsden has been to that revitalization. This vibrancy has been influenced by both sides of the Marsden the editors and authors want to present: the academic successful with secular historians and the Christian who has connected his faith and his scholarship. Both have been very influential to the field and seem to have no indication of waning.