It is not only a valuable addition to the history of nineteen-century temperance but an original contribution to our understanding of post-Civil War race relations.
~American Historical Review
This study makes an important contribution to the literature on temperance, fraternal organizations and late nineteenth-century Anglo-American attitudes toward race.
~American Studies
Imaginative and persuasive.
~American Studies
A good overview of the interplay of universalist themes in the temperance movement with the forces of racism and nationalism.
~Choice
Adds considerably to an expanding genre of monographs that are reconsidering some previously ignored social sources of American culture, particularly in defining the relationship between masculine and feminine spheres.
~Church History
Provides new insights into this fraternal order, which has received very little attention from historians.
~Contemporary Drug Problems
Drawn from previously untapped sources that lie in British and American archives, Fahey's book illuminates a fresh aspect of African American history—the study of the black Templars.
~Florida Historical Quarterly
In rediscovering some remarkable and influential characters, Fahey has tapped a rich seam and for that he deserves our gratitude.
~History
Well crafted and clearly written.... Fahey's findings may change somewhat prevailing views about the nineteenth-century American temperance movement.
~H-SHGAPE
Fahey commands great respect for pulling a coherent story out of often fragmentary data.
~Journal of American History
Shed needed light on this important and unique group. His internationalist approach provides many insights into the society, its inner workings, and its place in the history of temperance and fraternal organizations.
~Journal of Mississippi History
Fahey's well-researched and clearly written social and cultural history of the International Order of Good Templars largely succeeds in rescuing this important temperance organization from historical oblivion.
~North Carolina Historical Review
Fahey's study... is an important addition to the scholarship of fraternal societies, the temperance movement, women's history, and African American history.
~Ohio History
Provides valuable insights into important aspects of the early years of the IOGT.
~Social History of Alcohol Review
A useful and even important book which spans the fields of British and American history, and speaks to issues of racism, internationalism, voluntary organizations, fraternalism, the social life of blacks, and temperance reform.
~Social History of Alcohol Review
Fahey sets a task that would have daunted a less ambitious scholar: exploration of racial attitudes in an international context with the United States and Britain as the main stage.
~Albion