Nancy Koester teaches religion at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. An ordained Lutheran minister, she has also written Fortress Introduction to the History of Christianity in the United States and Journeying through Lent with Luke.
The Gospel Coalition
"Phenomenal. . . . A marvelous introduction to everything from the
history of the Western Reserve and Ohio Valley to the nature of
antebellum sectionalism and political conflict to the
often-contested ground of gender roles in American culture." Stone
Campbell Journal
"Koester succeeds admirably in producing an engaging narrative in
which Stowe remains a dynamic woman both a product of her context
and a person who sought the deepest possible relationship with
God." The Historian
"Koester's detailed narrative offers a more comprehensive and
theologically sophisticated picture of Stowe's developing religious
views. Exhaustively researched and engagingly written." James M.
McPherson
-- Pulitzer Prize winner for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War
Era
"The daughter, sister, and wife of prominent clergymen and
theologians, Harriet Beecher Stowe outshone them all in her impact
on American religion and reform. Her life and work were framed by a
spiritual quest that led from her ancestral Calvinism to
high-church Episcopalianism and even spiritualism. Nancy Koester's
lucid narrative and penetrating analysis carry the reader along
unfailingly on this fascinating quest." Debby Applegate
-- Pulitzer Prize winner for The Most Famous Man in America: The
Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
"It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Harriet Beecher
Stowe, who was in her lifetime the most famous and influential
woman in the United States, bar none. But she has been largely
forgotten today. Nancy Koester's comprehensive biography brings
Stowe's personal story to life for a new generation while
re-creating the fierce religious and cultural battles that inspired
her to write the Great American Novel that helped turn the course
of American history." Booklist (STARRED review)
"The subject of this accessible and absorbing interpretive
biography was perhaps the most famous American woman of the
nineteenth century. . . . Koester engagingly and intelligently
discusses each major novel, each family crisis, each journey, and
each spiritual change, including a fluctuating interest in
spiritualism after the deaths of two of her sons, without a whiff
of academic fustiness. A top-notch read." Choice (American Library
Association)
"This biography by Koester provides a well-versed, comprehensive
account of the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. . . . Koester
balances Stowe's literary and social work alongside concise
reflections on her religious and spiritual changes. . . .
Recommended." Congregational Libraries Today
"A fascinating biography of the abolitionist and author of Uncle
Tom's Cabin. . . . Koester presents all the facts of Stowe's life
in a volume that is scholarly and extremely well annotated, yet
written in a lively style." Presbyterian Outlook
"Nancy Koester's superb biography portrays Stowe in all her varying
colors, from the fiery hues of the abolitionist reformer to the
soft pastels of the fully engaged mother and wife." Christian
Century
"Koester has accessibly translated an exemplary 19th-century life
for a 21st-century audience. Her Stowe is a women to be admired and
emulated but who also is recognizable to today's readers in her
struggles to find a balance between her work and her spiritual
life." Fides et Historia
"One of the strengths of this biography is Koester's adeptness at
conveying the experiences and emotions that shaped Stowe's
devotional life and faith-informed activism. . . . Koester's
writing is accessible and she encourages the reader to identify
with her subject. Her sympathetic portrayal of Stowe's inner life
dares the reader to ask how they would confront the same questions
she faced. This quality makes the book a helpful introduction to
the time period or a good springboard for undergraduate class
discussions." Anglican and Episcopal History
"Koester's study provides a model analysis of life-long growth in
faith and grace." Presbyterian History
"Presents readers with a woman who used what she had in skills and
position to live as a follower of Jesus Christ. Readers will be
rewarded for reading this biography." Journal of Southern
History
"Koester's often intimate portrait of Stowe's spirituality is both
engagingly and clearly written . . . . General audiences interested
in Stowe's religious life will likely enjoy Koester's account of
Stowe's spiritual journey and learn something about
nineteenth-century American history in the process."
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