Hein skillfully provides regional, religious, and historical contexts for Powell's life and furnishes penetrating insights into the man and the entire Episcopal establishment of this era. [The author] resourcefully combines secondary scholarship, personal conversations and communications, and conventional primary documents to capture Powell's personality, career, and relationships…. Anyone with a serious interest in American religious history will find this compelling biography to be both informative and thought provoking. -- Samuel C. Shepherd Jr., Journal of Southern History Hein's wide knowledge of the sociocultural forces at work in the mid-twentieth century, and especially the forces that generated the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, have enabled him to illuminate an entire period of Episcopal Church history through the life and work of one man. . . . Hein's gracious style, judicious insights, and especially his striking ability to penetrate the subtleties of southern religion in brief and trenchant observations make this book a pleasure to read. -- Susan J. White, Anglican and Episcopal History [A] painstaking, thoughtful biography. . . . To this story Hein … brings balance, sensitivity, and exhaustive research. As 'the last bishop of the old church,' Noble Powell will be remembered longer than many of his predecessors. -- James Bready, Baltimore Sun [This] biography . . . is meticulously researched, full of primary source material and rich documentation. [It] is fun to read for anyone with an interest in American Protestant history. -- David E. Sumner, Journal of American History
